Paul Gingerich’s Murder Conviction Overturned, 14-Year-Old Will Get New Trial

crackin me up with that human fleshlight shit – god damn morbid

He might not understand the legal terms but i believe he understood what he was doing when he fired the shots.. kids arent kids anymore. They are much more grown up than we were at their age.

Doing adult shit doesn’t make you more grown up, as we have been telling children for years.

Preach.

The question I have is: is he sporting that scary look because he’s a psychopathic brat (as you say), or because he’s spent the past 2 years in a facility that houses violent juveniles? When I look at his picture from 2 years ago, I see a boy who looks like he’s about 8 or 9.

We’ve spent the past 30 odd years systematically stripping juveniles of the hard-won legal protections afforded them by our juvenile justice system. In the process we have thrown away a lot of young lives, children who could have been rehabilitated if our system hadn’t taken such a turn for the punitive where juvenile crime is concerned. It’s as if we’ve taken a giant step back into the 19th century.

As scary as it is to be confronted by a 12 year old or an 11 year old wielding a gun, it’s even scarier to think what that 12 or 11 year old will be like at 30 or 35 after 18+ years at the mercy of our adult criminal justice system.

He looks like a smug little serial killer to be. If there is any proof that his step dad was abusive and if he did, indeed, “charge” at them. There might be a case. But he still looks like a sociopath to me, of course I believe that it will some day come out that our local TV weatherman is a psycho-killer as well.

It wasn’t his stepfather. It was the other kid’s, the kid who fired the two fatal shots.

Even at twelve(and long before) most kids understand the value of human life and the consequences of taking it so clearly there is a fuse or two missing in this kid’s head. He knows full well if he can be tried as a juvenile he’ll have a lot more leniency/pity in the court/rehab system-because his lawyers have made damn sure he knows as much. he is probably hoping he’ll get off with some technical mumbo jumbo from the lawyers.

This isn’t a case of legal system “pity.” The kid wasn’t even afforded the same legal processes that a hardened criminal adult normally is.

I wanna smack pretty much everyone on this article. Did you shitheads NOT read this part:

A week after his arrest, a Kosciusko County judge ordered Gingerich to be tried as an adult after a two-hour hearing. The boy’s defense was given four days to prepare, instead of the three to four months usually given in similar cases.

THE BOY’S DEFENSE.

WAS GIVEN.

FOUR DAYS.

TO PREPARE.

What the actual fuck? That is not legal by any definition of the word!

What Athena said!!!!!!!!!

What Heather said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This kid wasn’t even given “due process” under the law – which correct me if I’m wrong- is our constitutional right.

To even consider this kid as a sociopath is nuts. There is no history or pathology indicative of a disorder. Kids just don’t wake up one day and become sociopaths. They have a history of sociopathic behavior.

Like duct taping kittens to the shoulder of a highway, lighting matches and throwing them into cars with open windows (a 6 y/o I worked with did this, plus had a tree house full of dead/dismembered animals), placing broken glass in front of Mom and Dad’s bedroom at night so they step on it in the a.m. and on and on. His history is quit the opposite.

And anyone who has ever been around normal 12 y/o boys/girls know they have brain fart moments. LIke, “Hey, let’s give the family cat a bath!! Wouldn’t that be fun!” and not realizing the cat will use them as a scratching post.

All you need do is watch some vids of kids doing stupid shit. They just don’t think things through.

And before anybody gets all wiggy on me, yes; he shot his friend’s stepdad. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. (A sociopath would watch.) He reacted to what his friend did.

Let the down voting begin.

Really? I think he looks like a teenage boy with some unfortunate eyebrows.

No down vote here. Good post. People need to stop thinking about what THEY would do when they were twelve. Honestly, MOST people can’t really remember what they thought at that age. They can remember what they DID (some of it anyway) but how they thought, their emotions and all that? Only the really impactful stuff stands out.

Anyway – this child did something incredibly stupid. But WHY did he do it? Was he really trying to help and protect his friend? It makes no difference if the stepfather was abusive or not. It matters if this kid THOUGHT he was. I know the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but in the case of a twelve year old, who does NOT have enough life experience to know much of anything, we have to look at that. To not look at his intentions is simply not humane. With adults, I don’t care as much – but children are so easily manipulable and they just DON’T have the brain capacity to know the implications of everything they do.

He almost certainly knew right from wrong. But that is different from what is called “moral development”. As very young children, their moral development says “this is right” or “this is wrong”. There are no exceptions. As children develop, most move to the next level of “preconventional morality” which allow them to rationalize. But they STILL can’t put themselves in other people’s shoes, or understand what societal rules are. Most people eventually get there (see Kohlberg’s Morality Theory), but this child was incapable of thinking those thoughts at that age. That does not mean that he was a good boy, or that he does not need to punished (or preferably HELPED), but it needs to be taken into consideration – a deep consideration.

Because the truth always offends some faction of the populace. In this case, I imagine these two individuals reject my assertions because, if they’re forced to accept that today’s children are stunted, they’re forced to accept that today’s children are also less culpable than we were.

We all see those comments about how bad kids should be beaten and killed. If people are forced to see kids for what they are, kids (and even less able kids than they were themselves), they might have to get more creative about preferred punishment.

“Hell, after reading the comments here for all these years, most adults don’t.”

Heh.

I read about this in the forums yesterday (somehow I had not heard of it until then) and I was just astonished that they even tried him as an adult the first time. I mean, I literally could not wrap my mind around it. I am so glad they revisited this and are giving him a new trial under juvenile law. Every adult in our judicial system who allowed and advocated for him to be tried as an adult the first time needs to be horse whipped. Things like this really make me wonder about people in our society who are supposed to me reasonably intelligent adults.

I hope I’ve finally got a downvoter of my very own. It makes me tingly inside.

wow….. a whole 4 days huh? that’s enough time to get things together…. that jack hole from colorado that shot up a movie theater has not been to but, what, 3 hearings, over the span of months. phsychiatrists have to evalvuate him, question him, but not a 12 yr old thats shooting other people’s step parents? i have no faith in this world, and no faith in the human race. smdh

Leg-humping and girl crushes?!? Man… It’s usually rotten fruit and cuss words when I share my opinions and knowledge on this stuff. <3

Agreed.

I am baffled that anyone thinks this kids understanding what he did was wrong is the crux of the debate. The issue here is where he should serve the sentence he received for killing a man. This boy knows what he did was wrong, and he knew it when he did it.

As far as “acting” as if he is a victim, he was a victim… of a judge who stripped him of his Constitutional rights. Unless you are saying that we should start selectively choosing who the Constitution applies to, and when it should be applied.

For those of you who feel this kid should be in adult prison, you may still get your wish as this news story isn’t about a kid killing someone and getting away with it, it’s about a kid getting a new, legal trial.

He very well may go to adult prison on a murder charge with an even bigger sentenced than the one he has currently, and some of you can then masturbate with joy that justice was done.

But for me, I’d rather have my taxes pay for an incarcerated 12-year-old back out on the streets after going through a juvenile rehabilitation program, getting counseling, obtaining an education, and a job. Not someone who grew up in an adult prison. I know, silly.

*starts working on his Athena disguise*

Uhmmmm… Wolfie’s straight. LOL!

LOLLAL!

Their “in jail” behavior should not really count IMO because they do not deal with everyday, NORMAL situations that will really demonstrate their true & changed ways after committing certain crimes. Of course he’s a straight A’s student; there’s nothing to fucking DO in jail. No disciplinary actions because they are controlled in jail and for fuck’s sake there’s no girls to try to impress with his “bad boy” gimmick.

It’s sad to think that the time spent in prison probably made him more inclined to criminal activities when he needed help, not ADULT prison.