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Would appreciate your thoughts on the following:


NEW CASTLE (KDKA) ―
A judge in Lawrence County has ruled that a boy accused of murdering his father's pregnant fiancee should be tried as an adult.

This will make him one of the youngest defendants in Pennsylvania history to face a trial for first-degree murder.

Judge Dominick Motto denied a petition to transfer Brown's case from criminal court to juvenile court.

"In assessing this evidence, what is of significance relative to the issue before the court is the degree of premeditation involved in the killing, as defendant would have had to have retrieved the shotgun in order to effectuate the killing.

"Additionally, the acts of returning the shotgun to the bedroom, removing the spent shell, and depositing the spent shell in the yard area of the path taken from the residence to the roadway demonstrates an effort, immediately after the killing, to conceal any indication that the defendant was responsible for the killing," Judge Motto said in the court order.

Brown was just 11-years-old when police said he murdered his father's pregnant fiancee in 2009.

Investigators said the boy took a shotgun from his bedroom, shot her as she slept, returned the gun to his room, dropped the spent shell in his yard and went to school.

Now, the defense had argued that Brown was doing well in the juvenile system and should be kept there.

The case is highly controversial because if convicted of first-degree murder, the boy would face a mandatory life in prison sentence at only 12-years-old.

However, the Attorney General's office is leaving the door open for the possibility that they could still pursue the case with lesser penalties.

I just cant help but feel that this CHILD needs help more than he needs punishment.

he's a child... 12 yrs old?

yes I agree lizzie, unfortunatley that is how the judicial system works here. all there going to do is make a monster out of this young man, so sad

I think this story struck a chord with me, because it reminds me so much of an incident here where I live

A 11yr old boy, saw his entire family killed by a drug kingpin. He and his 9yr old sister survived because they hid under a bed.

His life went downhill from that day. Now 27, this boy is now being charged with attempted murder of two young children.

Most are ready to lock him up and throw away the key... I know all about people being able to make the right choices... but can you imagine how seeing one's entire family murdered can mess up a child? How does one expect a 'normal' and productive adult to emerge thru such circumstances if the necessary counseling and help was never offered?

Diff circumstances from the story above, but both children who needed help and didnt get it.

hey guys

as usual, i sit on the other side of the fence; for a couple of reasons.

i don't support the "young offenders act." its been scientifically proven that a person's brain is formed and developed by the age 7-10 years old ... meaning, the difference of right and wrong has been established, i learned this going thru the adoption process and that is why all children over the age of 4-5! are called special needs children ... because their personality traits and character have already been ingrained as part of their being; not that they cannot be changed from negative to positive by way of the Lord, which obviously goes without saying.

another reason i don't support the young offenders act is because we can see where it has taken us, it is getting worse, not better. if the young offenders act was an effective law/process, it would have shown positive results by now ... it has not.

the argument of "seeing" violence propagates violence doesn't hold water for me either because if that was the case then every person who came out of the nazi concentration camps would be mass murderers; personally, i've not heard of any Jewish person claiming this. in fact, when i lived in toronto, i met a woman who was born in a concentration camp in borneo. she was an older lady who worked in a jewellery store and i struck up a conversation with her and one thing led to another and she was telling me her story. her body was falling apart because of such malnutrition in the camps. yet, she was a kindly lady with a twinkle in her eye.

no .... i believe that we make choices in our lives, even at 12 years old. we should not be allowed to subvert the consequences. God doesn't allow us to subvert our consequences. we should not allow our children to either.

curiously there is no "young offender act" listed anywhere in the Bible. just consequences for the actions. it does say that parents who cannot get their kids to comply with the rules of the family and God, should hand them over to the church ... and let the priests/church deal with them. that says to me that no matter what the age, they need to be separated out and dealt with.