Sentencing disparities in juvenile homicide cases: Tate and King

¶ … high profile murder cases. The cases are in the same state with very different outcomes. The writer explores the differences and discusses the fairness of the charges and the sentences. There were four sources used to complete this paper.

The nation has been horrified in recent years due to children committing adult crimes. Whether it is the Columbine case, a teen murdering his father or a teen killing a child, the idea that children are now capable of such violence is almost more than the mind can fathom. Yet every year there are cases in the news. The outcome of a case in which a minor is involved is often a bone of contention in debates. Should children be sentenced to adult sentences for their crimes and if so should the same sentencing rules apply across the board? In looking at two recent cases in the state of Florida the debate rages on. Lionel Tate claims to have accidentally killed a six-year-old friend of the family while showing her some wrestling moves and Derreck and Alex King admitted to killing their father purposely the sentences were vastly different. Their cases were also vastly different. Tate received a life sentence without the possibility of parole, while the King boys are in a juvenile detention center until they are 21 years old and they will be released. Tate did not have expensive attorneys, he had public defenders. The Kings had people come forward and hire the best that money could buy. Tate is Black the Kings are White. The comparison of these two cases illustrates the need to provide sentencing boundaries when it comes to juveniles.

COMPARING

Each of the two cases involves a homicide committed by juveniles. Each of the crimes occurred within the state of Florida. Each of the participants was under the age of 15 years old. This is where the similarities seem to end.

In the case of Lionel Tate the death occurred in his living room when his mother was home. According to testimony his mother had agreed to watch the six-year-old victim as a favor to a friend. She went upstairs and left her then 12-year-old son downstairs alone with the six-year-old. The two were playing and according to the mother got so loud at one point that she yelled downstairs for them to please be quiet (Where it all began: 14-year-old gets life (http://www.courttv.com/trials/wrestling/background.html).

A few minutes later Tate raced up the stairs and said that the little girl was no longer breathing.

Tate testified that the death was an accident that occurred while he showed his friend some wrestling moves that he had seen on television. He admits he hit her head on a table and he admitted to body slamming her the way he had seen done on television.

The prosecution insists that the internal injuries of the girl were too extensive to have occurred the way Tate says that they did (Where it all began: 14-year-old gets life (http://www.courttv.com/trials/wrestling/background.html).

In the King brother case Alex, the younger brother, says that he entered into a homosexual relationship with a 40-year-old friend of the family (Sons, family friend face life for murder (http://www.courttv.com/trials/king/background.html).The testimony in this case was that the older friend, who is a convicted child molester told Alex and his brother Derreck that if their father was dead they could come to live with him. The brothers admit their father did not physically abuse them but said that he mentally abused him. The older brother got a baseball bat and carried out their plan to murder their father. The younger brother helped to set the house on fire in an effort to hide the evidence (Sons, family friend face life for murder (http://www.courttv.com/trials/king/background.html).

PUNISHMENTS

The punishments of the King brothers do not violate the cruel and unusual prohibition in the United States Constitution now that they have been moved from an adult prison to a juvenile detention center.

The punishment of Tate however, was in violation of the cruel and unusual punishment prohibition of the United States Constitution.

Sending him to an adult facility was cruel and unusual for him in the same way that it was deemed cruel and unusual for the King brothers. In addition a life sentence without the possibility of parole handed down to him at the age of 14 violates the prohibition as well. It was cruel and unusual and went beyond what was reasonable given the circumstances of his life and his age at the time the death occurred.

CONCLUSION

While Florida has a provision that allows the sentencing of the remainder of life without the possibility of parole it should not be an option in the case of crimes committed by juveniles. Both cases were about murder, yet the outcomes were entirely different. Differences in the cases include the color of the skin of the defendants as well as whether the defendant had a public defender or a paid attorney on their side. The punishments started out in violation of the cruel and unusual punishment but in recent history have been reduced so that they no longer fit that provision. The King boys have been moved to a juvenile facility and the Tate case has been revaluated and Tate is scheduled to be released within the next few years.