UDunnoBro: since he is only 17, he has to go through the Juvenile system first. He will be charged as an adult, so he will not be ultimately tired in a juvenile court. Someone can correct me if I am wrong. Anyway, he will be getting life unless the jury has a brain fart. Again my heart goes out to the victims family, but also to his. I would hate to be on either side of this mess. :(

He turned 18 today. No longer a child. He will be tried as an adult.

crime was committed at 17, but laws have changed.

Gina I think you're referring to Justin Beiber.....j/k wanted a reason to include his name.

OhioBar.Org:

Q: When is trial as an adult required?
A: Trial as an adult is mandatory in certain very serious cases: (1) when the charge is aggravated murder or murder, and the child is 16 or 17 and has been committed to an Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS) facility; and (2) when the charge is a certain serious felony offense, and the child is age 16 or 17 and either has previously been committed to a DYS facility or used a firearm while committing the offense. If the court finds that these conditions exist and that there is probable cause to believe that the child committed the offense, the child must stand trial as an adult. There are also other limited circumstances in which the child must stand trial as an adult.

According to a judge interviewed earlier this week the defense will have to argue before the court why he should not be tried as an adult if they want to keep it in juvenile court.

Everyone knows he did it, One in the head. End of story.

Bobby Jones Bia

Everyone knows he did it, One in the head. End of story.

and while we're at it, let's get Justin Bieber too

lol

Bobby Jones Bia

Everyone knows he did it, One in the head. End of story.

He still has a constitutional right to a trial.

francobobfred

Not according to NDAA if it can be called terroristic, which it was.

There is also something called beyond reasonable doubt. Is there any?

Just like the dufus in Arizona, he should be done also.

Gina, he "alledgely" committed the crime when he was 17, so they have the option of charging as a juvenile or an adult.

Unfortunately the system we have set up is sensationalized by the media. Kids out there contemplating this type of action are just encouraged by the media coverage and movies that will eventually be made.

If kids knew they would be executed for this type of murder it would probably make some of them think twice. Laughner is a perfect example.

bobby,

I agree with you on your first point but the second one is not exactly how a kid would think. After all they are not mature enough to think things all the way through nor are they mature enough to understand, really understand, just what the implications are for pulling a trigger and how it would impact their lives.

This story has pretty good coverage but a horrendus story about a 13yo white boy having gas poured on him by older black boys and lit on fire seems to be ignored.

http://www.kmbc.com/r/30572405/detail.html

"In an interview with KMBC, the mother said her son heard "This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy." Those are the words that a 13-year-old boy allegedly heard right before he was set on fire. The victims mother, in an interview with KLTV is reporting that the young man was aware that he was being followed home. Allegedly, two boys about 16 years old rushed him on his family's front porch. One teen blocked the boy's entrance to the home, while the other one poured gas on him. After making the above statement, they lit a Bic and started him on fire"

They should put this loser right in the electric chair!!!!!Do not waste are money!!!!!!!!!

If kids knew they would be executed for this type of murder it would probably make some of them think twice. Laughner is a perfect example.

Uh, Bobby, you know Laughner is completely schizophrenic and living in lala land, right? He's totally card-carrying crazy.

I say do it the African way, death by ant-hill. But seriously I don't understand our jouvie system at all. Once the kids in jouvie are 18, they're adults. Adults who, as kids, commited murder. Are they not still murderers if they did it as a kid?

Why couldn't he have turned the gun on himself like the rest of these idiots do. Now the victims families get to pay his room and board the foreseeable future.

It seems to me that the only reason to charge someone as a juvenile is because that person doesn't understand that what they did was wrong. Like a child stealing a comic book or TPing a neighbors house, I'm pretty sure a 17 year old has no misunderstanding of why it is wrong to bring a gun to school and murder other students so if they don't charge this guy as an adult it's just wrong.

Tooke101 I agree with you 100%.

And Richard 316- I don't even for a second believe that TJ did not know what he was doing. Children having their right/wrong part of their brain not fully developed is the biggest piece of crap I have ever heard. Maybe the lawyer of a 9-year old could use that excuse, but not a 17-year old. He totally knew what he was doing was wrong. It's a load of crap to think that as a 17-year old, you wouldn't understand the consequences of your actions.

The prison system is about reform and reeducation. This individual is intelligent and fully aware of what he did and no amount of therapy or reeducation will make him a better less violent person. Even if he is initially sentenced to a maximum security facility he'll eventually be moved to a minimum security facility sooner or later for good behavior. He may struggle in prison because of his age, it makes him a target, however he'll have access to great health care, education, food, recreational activities, and if he is good he'll be out in 15-25 years. The likely hood of him repeating a similar act will be greater when he gets out because he'll probably be even more angry at the world for what he endured in prison. Nothing has changed except money and time is spent of 'bringing justice' upon an individual and creating a false sense of acceptance for the families.

Though I believe the best course of action for someone like him is to put him though 10 hour days of hard labor 7 days a week so he can pay for his own existence in prison so none of us have to be responsible for this little pos.

Very true. It seems that this country is "caught between a rock and a hard place" when it comes to the prison/justice system. There's people that think the death penalty will be the solution to everything, but when you consider the expense and the statistics collected about its effectiveness, that course of action doesn't seem to work very well. On the other hand, life imprisonment is not the most effective thing either. Not only do those who were imprisoned for life tend to develop a hatred and contempt for society as a whole, they also end up being released (in cases that do not specify "...without the chance of parole") back into society where they may choose to either kill again or rejoin normal society.

Neither of those options sound particularly wonderful to me. The Norwegian Prison System is known for its focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment and that has shown a dramatic drop in repeat offenders. The optimist in me wants to believe that the United States could one day have a system like that, but the realist in me knows it will never happen because the cultural differences are just too dramatic.

My suggestion: Open a very large Colosseum and let them battle.

Eric,

"The prison system is about reform and reeducation." Are you serious?!!!!

If that were really true you would not have convicts returning to prison at rates above 70%. Reform? No. Education? Only on a very limited scale.

Richard i agree with you 100 %! Reform is rare and education even more rare, which is why his issues being ignored for so long are just as criminal in my opinion. Anyone who thinks prison systems are good should spend some time checking it out to really understand it! Noone did anything when he was obviously in trouble and because of that people died. Why aren't those people charge? People want to talk about accountability and holding people responsible how about those who failed this young man and let all of this happen to begin with.

Eric, it doesn't seem like you work in the prison system. A lot of people want to make it seem like detention facilities are these great places where inmates are getting all these wonderful perks and that life in prison/jail is a cakewalk... If you actually worked in a detention facility (as I do), you might see why recidivism rates are so high. Reform and reeducation?? LOL

Prison isn't about reform, its a scary ass pen for terrible people. All it serves is to make criminals harder while keeping them off the streets. Its a gang breeding ground. Thats the problem with life sentences, it just becomes a festering stew of evil and hatred. I feel worse for the guards who put their lives on the line dealing with it.

"sammy72746

A life of entitlement with Food Shelter, Education, TV and a free lawyer. All at taxpayer expense. What a system. For those of us that worked all our lives I guess people are Laughing their A!! off"

Yep, he will be laughing his ass off in prison, just thinking about how much he is ripping off the American taxpayer.

If this sounds like a really good deal, to you, then you can stop working now, commit a capital crime and live off the taxpayers for the rest of your life.

You might be doing us all a favor by removing one less obnoxious conservative from the gene pool.

This boy should endure the same thing he did to his victims...an eye for an eye...and that is put to death. He does not deserve to live a lifetime incarcerated, at taxpayer expense so he can become a "lawyer" in jail and file appeal after endless appeal for his "temporary insanity." A box six feet under should be his place.

Plus what an education in crime he will receive!

What the hell are you talking about? A life of entitlement? I don't know what you think prison is really like but I can promise you he will live everyday in complete horror that he will never walk again as a free man. Please stop bringing up that ridiculous taxpayer drivel. If conservatives were really concerned about the tax payers and prison sentences then they wouldn't throw someone in jail for 20 years for drug use.

What a very odd person you are Sammy.

He doesn't need rehab. He needs to be kept in prison for the rest of his life. The only "rehap" that he should get is being trained to get along with his fellow prisoners. The best way for him to get along is by becoming some big fat inmate's bitch.

I don't think the families misery will be "put out" by the immediate killing of the person who pulled the trigger. That won't bring their child back.

Yea, paying for his existence will definitely end theyre misery.

How do you rehabilitate a spoiled, selfish ahole who has no respect for life?

The word, rehabilitate, has always confused me. It assumes a person was habilitated before the crime. Some folks are just plain mean and evil. You can't habilitate, much less rehabilitate, a rattlesnake.

How do you know the gun was not locked up? He stole it. Don't you think he could have broken into something to steal it? Stealing something doesn't mean just walking up to where it lies and picking it up. A lot of times it involves some real effort to get to the desired booty.

I think there's a document out there called the Constitution of the United States that keeps the government from doing such things... I think.

cookykamp is talking about a guy named Percy Love who was witnessed and arrested by police for kicking a cat like a football 15 feet into the air within the last few days. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Since the issue of whether Lane kicked cats as a child or not is not being used as evidence (or proof that it ever happened) as signs of his violence, it's a post that has no relevance on this situation.

Start at his knees and work your way up.....more painful that way!

I believe it is important to try to understand what transpired in his head to reach the point that he did this. He's not the first and probably won't be the last to act out like this. There does appear to be a trend toward gun violence with school aged kids and we should try to realize why it is happening. I have my own theories as I'm sure others do, but some in depth analysis really needs to be done. I'd rather we didn't spend a lot of time and efforts attacking the "gun issues", but instead worked tirelessly to understand the psychological issues.

As far as trying him as an adult, I would say that there is no logical point in allowing him to get away with being treated as a juvenile. He pretty clearly planned out this attack and it wasn't some spur of the moment reaction. In a lot of respects our laws are a bit flawed in the way we look at children vs. adults. His calendar age is really meaningless. There are a lot of legal adults who are still children and lots of legal children who are very much adults. I believe in cases like this, the nature of what occurs is more significant than what the date on the calendar says.

I don't know that there ever really could be some valid test of being an adult, and maturity is yet another issue that isn't so easy to quantify. We take the easy way out when we use age as the determining factor.

In my opinion, this kid/young man, will be facing far worse than he endured to take him to this point. A mature thinking person would have considered this before acting. Obviously, that wasn't the case here. He is just one more human life wasted in this tragedy. That doesn't absolve him of any responsibility, but that fact that he lives, gives us at least some opportunity to attempt to find out why and possibly prevent some future similar incident. Maybe that is the one potential redeeming value to allowing him to live. Hopefully, we can find some value to this person life. I completely understand the desire for some type of vengeance or an eye for an eye approach, however, if we can somehow get something more, maybe future lives of others could benefit. It's at least worth a try.

1NewDay I agree with you, he won't be the last. America loves guns, and sometimes they fall in the wrong hands. I have no problems with people wanted to own guns to protect, hunt, or whatever, but in that case what do we do, have our kids go to school with a gun to protect themselves. I feel sorry for the family victims, no words will ever repay their loss. I also feel sorry for kid/adult, he f/up, but as a society i think somewhere the system failed him. A system needs to be put in place to prevent these tragedies to keep reoccurring. Any of us could be next...wrong place wrong time.

he stole it from his grandfather.

Here's the issue with that, if you do that then you could 'potentially' prosecute a policeman who walks around with a gun in his belt, and is disarmed during a scuffle and his gun then used to shoot others...

Everyone needs to remember, it's technically not the guns that kill people, it's the people USING the guns that kill others. You wouldn't arrest a car if it hit you, you'd arrest the driver.

That being said, I believe this young man should be tried as an adult and receive the most severe punishment possible.

I doubt if they "allowed" any such thing.

The little dirtbag stole it. The responsibility lies on his fat little head...........

It won't be a few years. Re-read the article and post #1.5. The prosecutor will be going for life in prison and charging him as an adult. The news media flubbed on their reporting of what the law is in Ohio. Post #1.5 states Ohio's law change regarding minors committing murder.