This Country Is All Too Ready to See Black Children as Criminals

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/country-all-too-ready-see-black-children-criminals



There was clear evidence that a family member had been sexually abusing 13-year-old Catherine Jones and her 12-year-old brother, Curtis, for years. But no one helped them, and the two children were left to figure it out themselves. In 1999, Catherine and Curtis plotted to kill the abuser, as well as their father and his girlfriend, Nicole Speights, because the kids had come to believe the two were responsible for allowing the abuse to continue, according to USA Today. Curtis shot Speights with his father's handgun. Then the kids panicked, tried to cover up the killing, and ran off.

It was a tragic incident that should have been handled by mental health professionals, not a criminal court. But instead of being treated as victims of sexual abuse, a Florida prosecutor charged the children with first-degree murder. The two became the youngest children in U.S. history to be charged as adults. Without any good legal help to present their side of the story, they ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder and were sentenced to 18 years in prison and probation for life to avoid life sentences.

Catherine Jones may be released a few years ahead of schedule this summer because of good behavior, but she will have spent a good portion of her young life in prison. She missed thumbing out a tweet, mulling a date for her high school prom, enjoying the butterflies of having a teenage crush, and doing the other things teenagers do.

The family member who sexually abused Catherine robbed her of her innocence, and the state of Florida robbed her of her youth. Officials from the Department of Children and Families failed them after multiple investigations found proof the children were being sexually abused, yet the department did nothing. When their defense attorney argued all of these points in a plea for leniency, the prosecutors didn’t see two scared, isolated kids who were being victimized; they saw cold-blooded killers.

[daleanime]

1. Our justice system, is just a system....

any justice that happens is purely unintended.

[brer cat]

3. This is just heartbreaking.

These children needed HELP not prosecution; they were simply abused again by the "justice" system.