About that 8 year old boy in Arizona who shot his father...?

wizjp

An 8 year old has no ability to make a determination of right and wrong on that level; anymore than he can be held responsible for decisions at that point.

I'm as big a law and order type as there is; this kid gets a lot of help and a foster home.

m4dness

no way... where will they gonna put him ??? ...put him in the jail with those hard adult ones?? that's more cruel than murder.

Clark Kent

Well your right in one aspect if the child was being abused raped every night and beat like a dog then not he should be let go.
But now if he shot and killed his father because he would not let him watch TV are stay up late, are would not take him to Disney World or sometime trivial then yes he needs to be tried as and Adult.
But first look at the family situation first then go from there.

QuestionGeek

How do we know the boy wasn't being molested by his pervert father? If that is the case, then justice has already been served. Case closed.

shop2early

I agree. Something deeper lays beneath all of this. Something had to be going on in that house.

Jenny

I agree totally

walterskinner2

There is no way they'll get him tried as an adult. But the kid is going to be put through an intense battery of social and psych workers way before the trial starts which I bet will bring many interesting things to light.

Somethings up...."what" is the real question....

and if it comes to light that "dad" was letting "bad" things happen....I'll take that boy's side of the argument any day.

burntout1973

I think adult is considered 18 but even at that I would say no at 8 he is still a child, Sad story.

Elliot

Here in Australia (like most of the industrial world, including quite a few US states) he wouldn't be tried at all. Over here the age of criminal responsibility is ten. It's just bad luck that he happened to kill his father in Arizona, which is one of a disturbingly large number of US states that doesn't actually have a properly-defined age of criminal responsibility. Trying him as an adult would be simply outrageous.
The kid clearly wasn't in his right mind, and he needs help. Labelling him a murderer and locking him up with a bunch of older child-criminals (and, later, adults) is about the furthest thing imaginable from helping.

tnfarmgirl

I'm with Stephanie C on this one

They can't put him in adult prison but I think he should be sentenced as an adult.

This is a grown up crime folks- premeditated murder
Let me say this slowly - pre med i tat ed mur der

An 8 year old boy guns down his family having the presence of mind to reload the gun -

What kind of help is out there for someone like this

Let him spend the rest of childhood in juvie and then send him to the big house to finish his time.
I can't see how he's going to be anything but a danger to society as he ages- he kills 2 at 8 what do we have to look forward to at 12?

Terr

I agree that you can't treat an 8 year old like an adult. An 8 year old can't be housed with adult prisoners.

But, I hate to see the father blamed by people without any evidence at all.

racism is unbecoming

I agree. Certainly, there must be much more investigation done here, as well.

justme

I agree with all of the answers that there was probably something else going on that needs to be investigated. I personally do not think he should be tried as an adult, he is just a kid that needs serious help. I am pretty sure that no child his age has ever been tried as an adult in the USA and I am willing to bet he won't be. Juvi detention center until he is 21.

start 6-22-06 summer time Mom

I would like to know what the boy was referring to when he said he's suffering, did the Dad have some sort of illness & wanted to end it so he told the boy to kill him because he was suffering ?
Who knows , they need to look into all the details 1st.
Either way it's very sad .

autumn_flurry

When I was growing up in Michigan, there were two boys who killed who I think was an uncle. In fact, I think they shot him, too. They were tried and convicted as adults. To my knowledge these two are still in prison, but I can't for the life of me remember their names.

When you get into a case like this, questions come up about rather or not the child is competent and responsible enough to commit murder. In this case it was revealed that the father had taught this little boy gun safety and how to use it. The fact that the boy knew the gun was dangerous and chose to pull the trigger anyway suggests he also knew it would kill his father.

You raise a good defense, they need to be looking at the family situation, but if the boy uses deadly force against two adults, think of what he might do to a child his own age if he were to become angry. There is a point where a line must be drawn between a child trying to defend themselves as best they can, and a child that knows what they are doing before they try.

Basing my opinions on facts of the case as well as prior case law, I think they should try this child as an adult. (Coming from a gun-control friendly democrat, lol.)

â™«4 ur eyes onlyâ™«

haha..i like how you describe yourself..cuz i'm like that too!! :)
Since when do we try KIDS as ADULTS? if he was 16...maybe...but 8...come on!!
That's ridiculous...it won't fly in court! or at lease I hope it won't...you never know about our judicial system these days!

EDIT--At his age, HE DOES know that it's wrong to kill people...why do you think he lied about it in the first place??? Those who think that this kid didn't know it was wrong to do this, need to have their head examined!! I think that this boy, if he is truly guilty, should go in Juvey, and be there for a LONG time!...not some ruthless adult jail, that would be absurd! People in there would have him beaten up in a day, not to mention everything else they do in there!!

MrFreedom

No, an 8 year old should not be tried as an adult. He should be sent to the nuthouse for a time, then serve a couple of years in juvie, then worked with as much as possible to have a chance at growing into a law-abiding man.

Young children are still developing the value systems we want them to have later in life. This kid apparently had some sort of development (social, value systems, etc) retarded at some point and needs to be brought back up to pace.

giftfromgod

This is the first time I have ever heard of a boy being charged with murder. It seems he thought about it, planned it and pumped several shots into each guy. This was not an accident or something done out of childish emotions. This is a killer.

He should be tried as an adult
I wouldn't be surprised if his father and the tenant were lovers and the boy did not approve, so he meted out to them the appropriate punishment, who knows? All I know is I don't want this child in a playground near my kids anytime soon. what if they did something he didn't approve of?

Miranda

EDIT

He shouldn't be tried as an adult. He's only 8! He possibly didn't know what was going to happen when he shot them. And he's a child still! Some children under 10 don't know about guns until their parents talk to them about it. My cousin didn't know about gun until she was 9. And she didn't know the effects of them if you shot someone with it. But still, he shouldn't be tried as an adult. Like me, and everyone else says, he's just a kid.

Baby Jace is here! Born Nov21st

When I heard that story the first thing I thought was that child needs to be put down like a dog. Some people are crazy. When I heard him speak, he sounded like a sociopath. That is not something you can teach. The lack of emotion he has when describing how he shot his own father was the most disturbing thing i've ever heard. Not to mention he initially tried to lie about it. This vermin reloaded the gun & had the audacity to shoot someone else. He is old enough to know better, and this was no accident. The last thing this world needs is another crazy running around. To let him out of a detention center at 18 is irresponsible. There are normal decent people who need to be protected. That child has mental issues....bring on the thumbs down

the real shaz

I think it is another another attention grabber so that people won't worry about issues of constitution eligibility

No, he should not be tried as an adult. An 8 year old does not have the ability to fully understand the consequences of their actions. They are very self-centered. That is because they are CHILDREN. How is the thinking level even close between an adult and a second grader. I don't care if he planned it out. Kids that age do not have the ability to think beyond the plans to what could happen if they do this. Abstract thinking does not exist until the teen years. My nephew can plan out how to photocopy money and try to use it at school to buy something he wanted. He knew it was wrong, but he had no clue the consequences on his actions. He was the same age as this kid. The kid needs counseling and he needs his parents to be checked out carefully. But, breaking a child away at this age from all outside contact and throwing him in a cell for 15-20 years is going to bred a very anti-social person that is going to have more problems than he already have. We live in a society that promotes violence through the media. Maybe we should start looking at what we are promoting and change that.

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