While it sickens me that Brandon McInerney was allowed to plead guilty to "second-degree" murder today for the 2008 execution of his gay classmate Larry King -- it's NOT second-degree when you PREMEDITATE IT, people, that's the definition of "first-degree" murder -- it was becoming painstakingly clear by the twisted things the jurors on his first trial were saying to the media that getting a conviction at all could pose a challenge, so I suppose we should be somewhat pleased that it wasn't reduced to (the more appropriately named) "manslaughter." (A young man was slaughtered in front of a room full of children, after all.) The fact that even King's dad's believed that his teacher was somehow to blame for "encouraging" his son's effeminate behavior tells you what prosecutors were dealing with. While I have ambivalent feelings about prosecuting children as adults even for adult crimes -- I'm not sure I truly believe a kid should be locked away for life for something he did when he was 14 -- I do have a problem with people not admitting what they actually did. The lede everywhere says: A California teen pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree murder for shooting to death a 15-year-old gay classmate at his middle school who he said made unwanted sexual advances. The lede should say what actually happened: Brandon McInerney told friends he was going to kill Larry King then brought a gun to school and did exactly that -- he EXECUTED him from behind in the middle of their classroom. That's a fact. That should be the lede screamed out on the nightly news. That he did not have to admit that, I suppose, is more an issue I have with the legal system than anything else, but it does painstakingly stick in my craw and I'm sure will haunt Larry's parents till the day they die. Sentencing is set for December, and prosecutors say McInerney will get 21 years in prison, without time off for good behavior, and will be 38 when he is released. Larry King received the death penalty and will never see his 16 birthday.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Brandon McInerney Gets Away With First-Degree Murder
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Kenneth: I feel the frustration too; premeditated is premeditated, and lets not pretend otherwise. Nonetheless, a 14 year-old child is still a child -- too immature to work, to vote, to drink, to drive, to live alone, to join the military, to give consent for medical treatment, too immature for every legal decision an adult can make EXCEPT FOR THIS IDIOTIC NOTION THAT CHILDREN ARE ADULTS WHEN COMMITTING CRIMES.
The law needs to be returned to the more common-sense approach that a child is subject to juvenile criminal law instead of adult criminal law. Change the minimum/maximum sentences so that even a child receives serious time for serious crimes (in CA, for juveniles, it is the lesser of the time or 25th birthday). Change sentencing to remove the 25 years and allow, reduced from adult sentences, a time sentence.
In this case, the culprit should have been judged in juvenile court for 1st degree murder, and the judge allowed a sentence of 15-20 years, irrespective of the 25th birthday.
This band-aide approach hurts the justice system because everyone knows that the system attempted to turn a child into an adult and turn a premeditated murderer into a manslaughterer.
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