It really depends on the child and their capacity to recall and identify events and people. The most famous case I know where a child witness was the key witness was the Lester Street Murders in Memphis, TN. On March, 2008, Jessie Dotson went to 722 Lester Street, where his brother, Cecil, lived with his girlfriend and their children. Jessie killed four adults were multiple gunshot wounds, killed two children, ages 2 and 4, who were beaten and stabbed. Three other children, one just 2 months old, also were beaten and stabbed, but survived the attack. Nine-year-old Cecil "CJ" Dotson Jr., who survived being stabbed in the head, identified his uncle Jessie as the lone attacker and that he was responsible for murdering 6 others and trying to
May 25, 1997, Sherrice Iverson, a 7-year-old girl lost the chance to grow up and live a full life. Jeremey Strohmeyer, a teenage boy walked into the women’s bathroom and intentionally molested and strangled the innocent child. David Cash was a key factor to whether that girl had a chance to a future or not. Choosing to ignore what he witnessed, he walked out of the bathroom leaving the teenage boy and 7 year old girl alone. Because of Cash’s decision, it created a controversial debate of whether he should continue to go to Berkeley.
A Christian pastor and his wife’s adopted son has been charged with murder after the couple was recently found dead in Alabama.
On October 18th, a teen in Meridian, Idaho shot and killed a 15-year-old, but police say the the shooting was an accident. 18-year-old David Provencio was smoking marijuana and consuming alchohol with many others in a home close to East Franklin Road. Provencio said that he pointed the gun and shot the victim, not knowing that the gun was loaded. And the kid who was shot was pronounced dead at the hospital. When the authorities arrived at the scene they were told that the kid shot himself while there were several children and a few adults there at the time of the shooting. Provencio could be facing 10 years in a prison on a charge of involentary manslaughter.
In 1892, a young woman named Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father and stepmother (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 2). This accusation was influenced by the lack of evidence at the scene of the crime. There appeared to be no murder weapon, very few witnesses, and the house did not show any signs of an intruder (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 5). Once the scene was investigated, it was determined that the cause of death for both victims was multiple blows to the head by an axe. Two axes were found in the home, and neither had a speck of blood (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 14). As it were, there was not enough evidence to convict a killer, nor was there enough evidence to convict Lizzie Borden. She was declared not guilty (“Lizzie Borden on Trial”
Brenton butler, a 15 year old young man that lived in Jacksonville Florida was arrested for committing murder in 2000. A man, Mr. James Stevens and his wife were robbed at gunpoint in front of a Ramada Inn in Jacksonville Florida. During the course of the robbery, the wife was shot and killed in front of her husband. He was able to give a description of the assailant and so he did. The assailant committing this crime has been characterized as a six feet tall skinny black male of age in between 20 and 25 years of age (Mr. Stevens 2000). Although Brenton Butler is much younger than the description given, and Butler is much shorter than the description as well, at least half a decade younger, he was still positively identified as to being the
James Rackover was led out in cuffs from New York 's 13th Precinct, center, after being charged with the murder of Joseph Comunale, left, 26, over the weekend. Lawrence Dilione of Oceanport, New Jersey, top right, has also been charged with his murder. Rackover and Lawrence Dilione are facing charges of second-degree murder, tampering and hindering prosecution charges after they allegedly stabbed Comunale 15 times and then tried to burn his body with gasoline on Sunday. The body of Comunale, who goes by the name Joey, was discovered in a wooded stretch on the Jersey shore early Wednesday. His partially-burned remains were found inside a suitcase that had been buried behind Foggia 's Florist in the town of Oceanport. There were multiple stab
Christopher Simmons was a seventeen year old juvenile from Missouri whom in 1993 along with two of his friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, planned to rob and murder Shirley Crook in her home (Roper v. Simmons, 2004). On the night the crime was to be committed, Tessmer pulled out of the plan, and Simmons and Benjamin would continue on as planned. The two broke into the Ms. Crook’s home, robbed her, tied her up, covered up her eyes, then drove her to a state park and threw her off a bridge. During the trial, evidence, videotaped reenactment and testimony outlining the premeditated plan, allowed for the jury to easily convict Simmons of the crime. Even though Simmons had no previous criminal record and was a minor at the time the crime was committed,
There are more than 2,000 child offenders serving life without parole sentences in United States prisons for crimes committed before the age of 18 and Lolita Barthel is one of them. The United States is one of only a few countries in the world that permits children who commit crimes to be sentenced to prison forever, without any possibility of release. Only eight states in this country Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, New York, and West Virginia and the District of Columbia prohibit life without parole for youthful offenders. Unfortunately, adolescents, like adults, commit horrible crimes and make terrible mistakes. And, like adults, they should be held accountable but in accordance with their age, stage of development, and greater capacity for rehabilitation.
The court case Roper vs Simmons was one of the most influential Supreme Court cases that dealt with the issue of whether or not juveniles should receive the death penalty if they were under the age of 18 at the time they committed the crime. In this case, Simmons and a group of his friends planned to commit a burglary and a murder. On the night of the crime, “Simmons and his two friends entered the home of Shirley Crook. Simmons recognized Crook from a car accident they were involved in before; he “later admitted to the police that “this confirmed his resolve to murder her.” Simmons and his friends tied Crook up and put her into the truck of her car. Then the defendants took her to a bridge and threw her off where she drowned. The day following the crime, the police came and arrested Simmons and his friends and charged them with burglary, kidnaping, stealing, and murder in the first degree.” (Roper v Simmons-No. 03–633. Supreme Court of Missouri. 1 Mar. 2005. Print.). The jury found Simmons guilty and sentenced him to
During the fall of 1993, Shirley Crook’s, a loving mother and wife, life was horribly cut short in one of the most horrific ways possible, drowning. Seventeen year old, Christopher Simmons, wrapped his victim in duct tape and electrical cords and drowned her in a river with help from his accomplices John Tessmer and Christopher Benjamin. He attempted to burglarize the Crooks residence along with his accomplices, and he only murdered Mrs. Crooks because ‘the bitch seen my face’ (State v. Simmons). He “assured his friends that their status as juveniles would allow them to ‘get away with it.’... Brian Moomey, a 29-year-old convicted felon who allowed neighborhood teens to "hang out" at his home. Tessmer met Simmons and Benjamin, but he refused to go with them and returned to his own home” (State v. Simmons). Christopher Simmons was later found bragging to Moomey about his horrid deed which later caused him to become arrested.
Ricky Franklin Smith was convicted based on his guilty plea of breaking and entering and his fourth offense of being a habitual offender. During his sentencing hearing, the court referred to his juvenile court records and enhanced his final sentence. Smith appealed his sentencing in the Court of Appeals arguing that he was entitled to resentencing because his juvenile criminal records had been automatically expunged pursuant to former MCR 5.913 (People v. Smith, 2017). The Court of Appeals reviewed People v. Price which had ruled that a juvenile record automatically expunged pursuant to MCR 5.913 could not be used during the presentence investigation. They also reviewed People v. Jones where the panel concluded that an expunged juvenile
As stated in the name of the murder, the killings were mostly of children except for two of
was supposed to be portrayed as true. It was shown that the actress acting as
In the poem, “On the Divine” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the author states, “Noble be Man,/ Generous and good”. This quote is meant to show that mankind is to be noble and good from a very optimistic perspective. However, put in such an event as the Holocaust, for example, this quote is proven wrong, for mankind has just as much potential to be noble and kind as they do to be selfish and cruel. In the Holocaust memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel, the author proves just this. The author, being a survivor of the Holocaust, writes of his first hand experience struggling through the awful events that happened to him and many other innocent people. The despicable and tragic events that Elie suffered through, however, is just one example of the wicked