Juveniles and Competency: A Case Review
How can the competence of an offender be properly identified when determining a person’s ability to stand trial and/or the death penalty? Has the criminal justice society placed enough safeguards to ensure that juveniles are protected? Regarding sentencing guidelines alone, it is crucial to determine the mental stability and competence of an individual at the time of the offense as well as while they are standing trial.
Competency can cover a variety of things. Primarily, it determines a person’s basic ability to stand trial. Does the offender understand what is going on, are they aware that they are standing trial for a crime that is believed to have been committed by them? Not all criminals are adults, although all criminals can be tried as adults. Even though there is a specific juvenile justice system in place, it is not always used. Dependency of the severity of a crime, a juvenile can be tried as adult. From 1992 to 1997, forty-four states in the U.S. passed laws to easily transfer a child from the juvenile system to the adult system. Murder is an offense that can easily escalate an offender from juvenile to adult court. The 2013 Uniform Crime Report found that juveniles under eighteen years of age are responsible for 9.8% of murders, 2.7% of those were under fifteen years of age (Bartol & Bartol). Let us reference the case of Lionel Tate.
Lionel Tate was only twelve years old when he killed a six-year-old girl, Tiffany Eunick, who his mother had been babysitting. The state of Florida determined that Tate would be tried as an adult, and was found guilty of first degree murder. Tate was fourteen years old when he was sentenced to life in prison for his crime. Even the prosecutor for Tate, Kenneth Padowitz, petitioned the state for a sentence reduction. Padowitz had initially offered the defense team plea deal which was denied: three years in a juvenile facility, one year of house arrest and ten years of probation with psychological counseling and therapy. Had this deal been accepted, Tate’s life could have wound up differently. Padowitz has stated that first degree murder was appropriate, but sentencing a 14-year-old boy to life without parole is not appropriate (ABC News).
At twelve years old, is a preteen able to understand words like: self-incrimination, burden of proof, or stipulate? These words are highlighted by Bartol and Bartol as words defendants need to understand when going through trial proceedings. How many adults can accurately understand the definition of these words? Furthermore, can a twelve-year-old fully grasp the concept that their actions can cause death or better yet that death is final? Let us consider Hollywood and entertainment based video games that continuously reenact life after death or instant start over options. These portrayals could inaccurately skew a child’s mind on the meaning of death.
Was Tate really responsible for Tiffany’s death? A study conducted by Heide and Sellers, as noted by Bartol and Bartol, while interesting doesn’t provide much insight. The study found of juvenile murderers found that adolescent males make up 88% of the offenders. Males are more likely to target victims between the ages of five through thirteen. The study also found that guns are usually the weapon of choice, and when a person is murdered, it is during the commission of another crime. Other research finds that parental monitoring might be to blame. While Tate’s mother served in the U.S. military, he reportedly moved around various family homes, once she got a job as a Florida State Trooper, he moved back in with her. When Tiffany was killed, Tate’s mother claimed to have been asleep in her room, getting rest before her shift (ABC News). While Tate’s mother was doing everything she could to provide for her family, somethings might have been out of her control while he was in other homes. Parental monitoring and the relationship parents have with their children are both prominent factors in a child’s behavior. Are these factors enough to weigh in on a child’s competency?
While the loss of life is always sad, it is simply devastating when it is a child. To sentence the juvenile murderer life without parole is almost fulfilling code of Hammurabi, an eye for an eye. After spending three years in prison, Tate was released in 2004 on a modified sentence of ten years’ probation. In 2004, after his release, he was sentenced to an additional five years’ probation for being found with a weapon. In 2006, two short years later, Tate found himself in trouble again as he held up a pizza delivery worker. This time, Tate was sentenced to thirty years in prison for the offense. Had Tate’s competency been deemed that of a child when he was twelve, would he had turned into a lifetime offender?
ABC News (2003, March 7). Leniency for Lionel Tate? ABC News. Retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123746&page=1
Bartol, A and Bartol, C. (2017). Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Approach. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Martin, M and Tobias, J. (2001). Basic Statistics. Frontline News, PBS. Retrieved from: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/juvenile/stats/basic.html
Unknown (2006, May 18). Lionel Tate Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison: Florida Teen Caught Violating Murder Conviction by Having a Gun. Associated Press, NBC News. Retrieved from: www.nbcnews.com/id/12852539/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/lionel-tate-sentenced-years-prison/#.Wi8Ra0xFz4g