Children - they are charge as an adult in USA!!!

Opal

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2003
Messages
3,760
Reaction score
1
Description: It was a tragedy that shocked the nation  the 1999 murder of a 6-year-old little girl, Tiffany Eunick, by her 12-year-old family friend, Lionel Tate. Perhaps as shocking as Tiffany's death was Lionel's conviction of first-degree murder and his sentence to life imprisonment. Lionel's trial, broadcast on national television, raised serious questions about the way America prosecutes children. The state of Florida tried Lionel as an adult, and punished him with a severe, adult sentence. In the March 2001 sentencing, Lionel, then 14, became what is believed to be the youngest person ever sentenced to life in prison without parole. Now, two years later, people are questioning whether justice was served, or whether Lionel should be shown some mercy. The prosecutor who won the case, even Tiffany's grieving mother, now feel that the punishment was too harsh for a child. Tiffany's mom, Deweese Eunick-Paul, remembers meeting Lionel and his mom, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, after she and Tiffany moved to Broward County, Fla., near the resort city of Fort Lauderdale. The mothers, both divorced, became close friends and began helping each other take care of the children. Eunick-Paul doesn't recall anything out of the ordinary about Lionel, who was 12 when she met him. He was a very large boy for his age, nearly 6 feet tall and 166 pounds. He never seemed argumentative or violent to her, she said, and he had played well with Tiffany, who, at only 48 pounds was about a third his size. On the night Tiffany died, Lionel's mother was watching the kids. She is a Florida State Trooper and was scheduled to work an overnight shift. So, she fed the children and went upstairs to take a nap while Lionel and Tiffany played downstairs. Sometime after 11 p.m. that night, Eunick-Paul got a phone call. It was Lionel's mother, asking if Tiffany had any problems with asthma, because she wasn't breathing. "I think I dropped the phone and started screaming 'my baby is gone.' " When she arrived at the hospital her motherly instincts proved, sadly, true. Tiffany was pronounced dead. But it wasn't until two days later, when the autopsy report was sent to the Broward County Sheriff's Office, that Lionel became a suspect. Eunick-Paul recalls learning that Lionel actually killed Tiffany. Her reaction was "shock," she said, "It was just devastating. Really, really devastating." The autopsy showed that Tiffany had suffered a crushed skull, broken ribs, more than 30 internal bruises. Her liver had been shredded and pushed through her rib cage. The case was sent to the Broward State Attorney's Office and the decision was made to charge Lionel as an adult  with first-degree murder. Prosecuting attorney Kenneth Padowitz said the severity of Tiffany's injuries prompted him to consider trying Lionel as an adult. "My belief was that the juvenile system in Florida at the time would give Lionel Tate an average of six to nine months in a juvenile detention facility & In my determination, after many sleepless nights thinking about this, was not an appropriate sentence."

http://www.abcnewsstore.com/store/i...duct&product_code=T030307 01&category_code=15

http://www.cjcj.org/press/life_sentence.html

http://www.courttv.com/trials/wrestling/background.html

Are you happy to see him spending the rest of his life in jail with no parole for what he had done to a poor little girl when he was a child?

I has a mixed feeling about it. Because boys will be boys, they don't really think deep for what they have done wrong?
 
The way the boy hurt the little girl was far from brutal. All I can say is he deserved to be put in prison for what he did to that poor little girl who was only 118 pounds lighter than him. He should knew better not to wrestle with a child so little.
 
I has a mixed feeling about it. Because boys will be boys, they don't really think deep for what they have done wrong?

*nodding agreement*

This thread remind me of 13 years old Eric Smith! They sentenced him to life for murder neighbor boy.

It look like that a boy bullied 6 years old girl but he wasn't realized that his bully drive her to death. A boy need help instead of sentence him to life with no parole...
 
I guess you guys haven't been following the news.

Here is the update:

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 19, 2006

Child killer Lionel Tate ordered back to prison

FORT LAUDERDALE - Lionel Tate, the teenager who got a second chance after he beat and stomped a 6-year-old girl to death, was sent back to prison for 30 years Thursday for gun possession.

"In plain English, you've run out of chances. You do not get any more," Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus told Tate, who smirked as he was led off to jail in shackles.

Tate, now 19, was convicted of beating Tiffany Eunick to death in 1999, when he was 12. He claimed he accidentally killed her while imitating pro wrestling moves he had seen on television. He became the youngest person in modern U.S. history to receive a life sentence.

His murder conviction was overturned in 2004 by an appeals court that said it was not clear Tate understood the charges. He was freed under a deal in which he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years' probation.

On Thursday, he was back in court over the holdup of a pizza deliveryman last May.

In a deal with prosecutors, Tate had faced 10 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery and violating his probation by having a gun. On Thursday, the judge let him withdraw his guilty plea in the robbery but still sentenced him on the gun charge. The robbery trial is set for Sept. 18...

Since his release, Tate has had numerous run-ins with the law. In September 2004, the judge sentenced him to an additional five years' probation for having a knife.

Last month, the judge ruled for the second time that Tate was competent to face the robbery charge after Tate claimed he was mentally ill from years of abuse by his mother. He claimed he was hearing voices, a story he later admitted was a ruse....
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/19/State/Child_killer_Lionel_T.shtml
 
Child killer Lionel Tate ordered back to prison

1. First, He kills a girl.

2. Second, He carries a knife, God knows who he may have buried a body somewhere else in Florida ?

3. Third, Now he holds up the local pizza deliveryman.


"In plain English, you've run out of chances. You do not get any more," Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus told Tate, who smirked as he was led off to jail in shackles.

Armed robbery arrest and subsequent plea bargain


On May 23, 2005, Tate was charged with armed burglary with battery, armed robbery and violation of probation, the Broward County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said.

Tate greeted Domino's Pizza deliveryman Walter Ernest Gallardo with a handgun outside a friend's apartment after phoning in an order. Gallardo dropped the four pizzas and fled the scene. Tate then re-entered the apartment, assaulting the occupant who did not want Tate inside.

Gallardo called 9-1-1 upon reaching the Domino's store and returned to identify Tate, the sheriff's office said in a statement. No gun was recovered.

On March 1, 2006, Tate accepted a plea bargain and will be sentenced to 10-30 years imprisonment in a sentencing hearing in April 2006. Tate admitted that he had violated probation by possessing a gun during the May 23 robbery that netted four pizzas worth $33.60. Tate has refused to answer questions about where he got and later disposed of the gun. He was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea for robbery but sentenced to 30 years in prison on May 18, 2006 on the gun possession charge.

Link to Wilkipedia entry on Lionel Tate
 
*sigh*

Seems not working out himself.. Best for him placed stay jail little more longer permantly..
 
If little boy does somnething bad, little boy has to get locked in the box too.

Richard
 
I saw him on tv one time and he shows no remorse to that poor little girl. So seem there is something wrong with him or it is his life that making him miserable that he need. As far I am concern that his mom is single and I see there is no male role model for him to look up to. Someone that could lead him in the right direction but I guess he didnt get it. That is so sad.
 
I live in FL, so I have heard a lot about this case. I also don't know what to think of it. On the one hand, he was 12 yrs old when the girl was killed. I really don't think he was old enough to understand the gravity of what happened. I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished. He should have been. He took that girl's life, and that deserves punishment. But, I don't believe he MURDERED her. I don't believe he INTENDED to kill her. I really think the prosecutor overcharged the case. He should have been charged with manslaughter, imho. As it was, the conviction was thrown out, and a plea deal was struck. He got his chance to redeem himself.

But... He blew it, in my estimation. He got himself into trouble again. I don't know all the facts of the case, but something tells me the mother is at fault here. In my mind, she's the one who doesn't want to face facts or reality. As it stands now, he was sentenced for probation violation and the robbery. He'll be spending a good bit of time in prison, and maybe, this is as it should be?

He did the crime, he should do the time.

As a youngster, he was treated unfairly, and we are now seeing the seeds sown from that. He's wasted his life.

And, I think it's a shame.
 
I hope he rots in there---scum is scum no matter how old it is.

I remember that poor little girl he killed. It is sick that he was ever let out, but sad the tax payers have to pay for him forever. Of course a more permanent solution would be better.....

I'm not surprised he is "hearing voices" now--last time his defense was "watching pro-wrestling made me do it".

He was a little bastard then and obviously hasn't changed. It would be good to see him, his mother, and the mother of that little Tiffany all in front of a firing squad---since they collectively murdered her.

How much you wanna bet they let him out again in a couple of years?
 
Back
Top