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That Zoloft kid (15-years-old) got 30 yrs. in prison

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MIMIC

Banned
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A 15-year-old boy who claimed the antidepressant Zoloft drove him to kill his grandparents was found guilty of murder Tuesday and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

[...]

Defense attorneys had urged the jury to send a message to the nation by blaming Zoloft for the killings. They said the negative effects of Zoloft are more pronounced in youngsters, and the drug affected Pittman so he did not know right from wrong.

"We do not convict children for murder when they have been ambushed by chemicals that destroy their ability to reason," attorney Paul Waldner said.

But prosecutors called the Zoloft defense a smoke screen, saying the then-12-year-old Pittman knew exactly what he was doing three years ago when he shot his grandparents, torched their house and then drove off in their car.

Prosecutor Barney Giese said the real motivation for the crime was the boy's anger at his grandparents for disciplining him for choking a younger student on a school bus. And he reminded jurors how the boy carried out the killings — shooting his grandfather in the mouth and his grandmother in her head while both lay sleeping.

"I don't care how old he is. That is as malicious a killing — a murder — as you are ever going to find," the prosecutor said. He pointed to Pittman's statement to police in which he said his grandparents "deserved it."

Pittman was charged as an adult in the November 2001 murders of Joe Pittman, 66, and his wife Joy, 62.
Yahoo! News/AP

Damn.

According to CNN, the boy was a very disturbed individual. But it appears that he conceived the plan to exact retribution for his punishment (the warning from his grandfather to send him back to Florida).
 

MIMIC

Banned
Gonaria said:
A twelve-year-old should never be tried as an adult. If the system is working, then the system is wrong

I don't think hiding behind your age should give you any leniency when it comes to a crime (especially when the evidence points to criminal intent and a clear understanding of right and wrong).
 

Tuvoc

Member
I dunno, shotgun to the mouth, then shotgun to the face, then buring down the house and driving off in a car....that's pretty fucked up.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Last time I checked, if an adult shot two people in the head, burned down the house and drove away in their car they'd get a lot more than 30 years.
 

Diablos

Member
Tuvoc said:
I dunno, shotgun to the mouth, then shotgun to the face, then buring down the house and driving off in a car....that's pretty fucked up.
Yeah, exactly. While you can definitely question why they tried him as an adult, you cannot question the fact that the kid has some serious issues... sure, the medicine could have "pushed him over the edge," but there has to be something wrong with you beforehand, I would think. If you do something that horrible -- shotgun to the mouth, then face -- to your own grandparents -- there's no coming back from that It's not like a couple years of therapy will help someone that became so distrubed. That's forever... he's going to think about what he did every day in many different ways throughout his life.

This isn't a case I'm going to question, because it's not like I can feel too bad for the kid. I don't think the antidepressants had anything to do with it.
 

olimario

Banned
Punishment was too light.
Life in prison minimum. He killed 2 people and destroyed property.
And a 12 year old knows that killing is wrong. A 12 year old knows that burning down a house is wrong. There should be no hiding behind age. Jewish boys are considered adults when they hit what? 12? 13?
 

Tazznum1

Member
13.


You know what is right and wrong. You know the consequences of blasting someone's head off with a gun. If you didn't, you would shoot everything in site to "play" with it. At 12 you know what death is and how you can kill a person.

F' em.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Gonaria said:
Somethings wrong when a 12 year-old can be tried as an adult.

This was an extreme case. Are you suggesting that he does not deserve this punishment?! It's certainly less than what an adult would receive in the face of this murder...
 

Minotauro

Finds Purchase on Dog Nutz
Justin Bailey said:
I'm mad this freak will be back on the streets when he's 45. Prolly earlier if he gets out on parole.

It's happened before...

edmund6.jpg


Let's just hope this kid doesn't decide to crush his mother's skull with a brick and then have sex with her headless corpse.
 

xsarien

daedsiluap
olimario said:
Jewish boys are considered adults when they hit what? 12? 13?

A faith's doctrine and simple facts of biology are two different things, Oli. Puberty doesn't end until the late teens, early 20s. By that very rule alone, someone who's 13 cannot be considered an "adult" under normal circumstances. Charging him as an adult is meant to be symbolic, nothing more. That he committed an "adult crime," he deserves an "adult punishment."

At 12, yes, unless there's some serious arrested development taking place, you know the basic difference between right and wrong, certainly enough to know that taking a human life is wrong. Given that, he deserves to be locked up, but the help he needs is psychological. To be able to do such a thing at such a young age is indicative of something just being broken.
 

Soybean

Member
I'm uncomfortable with trying young minors as adults, but this kid was pretty evil. I'm not sure what to think. He probably needs more psychiatric treatment than jail, though.
 

Waychel

Banned
At 12-years-old you know the difference between life and death as well as right and wrong. This wasn't a case involving a boy who lashed out at his grandparents in a fit of rage while not in his right mind, inadvertantly killing them. This is the case of a boy who waited until his grandparents were asleep, procured a gun, loaded it and fired upon them. There is some indication there of planning, thinking or even possible pre-meditation (although no proof was found to substantiate that assumption). The boy also had a history of violent behavior, such as choking another student on a bus. He deserved punishment for his crime and as a result he will hopefully get the psychological help that he needs while incarcerated. I fail to see how anyone can be in disagreement with this; he's obviously unfit for society regardless at this point. If he choked a student in the past and killed his own grandparents, do you really think that he belongs in a school or home environment?
 
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Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
some people are just evil. Lock that fucker up and put it down to him losing the genetic lottery. Bad luck. At least nobody except prison guards have to deal with him now.
 

Flynn

Member
Waychel said:
At 12-years-old you know the difference between life and death as well as right and wrong.

I'm sick of hearing this. It's just not true. Age and morality are not directly related. Values must be taught.

Shove a newborn baby in a closet and shovel food at them for 12 years and it will not walk out knowing the difference between right and wrong.
 

NLB2

Banned
Being black history month, let's see what the good Dr. King has to say about charging minors as adults.
Dr. King "Letter from Birmingham Jail" said:
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

Dr. King "Letter from Birmingham Jail" said:
A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law.

http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html

So the good Dr. King would applaud this youth for doing his "moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

This youth is not a monster - he is a revolutionary!

(Or Dr. King wasn't thinking straight when he wrote that letter)
 
Flynn said:
I'm sick of hearing this. It's just not true. Age and morality are not directly related. Values must be taught.

Shove a newborn baby in a closet and shovel food at them for 12 years and it will not walk out knowing the difference between right and wrong.

That's a foolish bit of logic there ... and you know it. Of COURSE a newborn under those circumstances wouldn't. However, one can argue that a 12-year-old that doesn't live in a magical fantasy land with floating bubblegum trees and happy clowns or some bullshit would understand. both in the face, house burnt down... yeah, I think the kid knew what he was doing. Maybe his head was altered by the Zoloft a bit, but as others have said, you have to be REALLY FUCKED UP already to do that. Especially with the movements made. Now a brief moment of rage, that I can see. But the shootings, the fire, driving off. He was in the frame of mind to understand.
 

Flynn

Member
ManDudeChild said:
That's a foolish bit of logic there ... and you know it. Of COURSE a newborn under those circumstances wouldn't.

It's a sliding scale. I described the extreme. No try to imagine the reality, in which children are raised with conflicting messages, crippling abuse, hormonal imbalances, learning deficiancies, poverty and all manner of other obstacles to living a normal, healthy, and non-waxing-your-grandparents-with-the-shotgun-that-they-just-left-lying-around-the-house kind of life.

It just ticks me off that people can read two paragraphs and immediatly pass judgement over a situation. You will never know that kid's life. You will never know the real details that lead to him offing his grandparents.

It's stupid to make a categorical judgement that he knew the difference between right and wrong with so little goddamn information.
 

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
I did the Zoloft thing for alil while an all it did was make me really really really really sleepy. -.- ..zzz

Killing people in and of itself is a crazy act. Does that mean all killers should get excused for being crazy? Of course not. And neither should this "kid."
 

Cloudy

Banned
But prosecutors called the Zoloft defense a smoke screen, saying the then-12-year-old Pittman knew exactly what he was doing three years ago when he shot his grandparents, torched their house and then drove off in their car.

I'm sure Zoloft also taught him how to drive at age 12. Lock his ass up and toss the key!
 

doncale

Banned
he seemed like he was 16. well he DID shoot his grandparents. and he DID shoot one of them in the mouth (or both in the mouth?) and the Zoloft did NOT make the fucker do it.

30 years. he is getting off lite.
 

Rorschach

Member
NLB2 said:
Being black history month, let's see what the good Dr. King has to say about charging minors as adults.




http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html

So the good Dr. King would applaud this youth for doing his "moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

This youth is not a monster - he is a revolutionary!

(Or Dr. King wasn't thinking straight when he wrote that letter)
Or...that's a retarded interpretation of what he wrote.
 

Grimlock

Member
catfish said:
some people are just evil. Lock that fucker up and put it down to him losing the genetic lottery. Bad luck. At least nobody except prison guards have to deal with him now.

Amen. Besides, all of the most notorious, vile, and evil people in history were all kids once. I say we got this one early. Not early enough unfortunately, but early.
 

RiZ III

Member
Can't help feel bad that that this 15 year old is going to rot in prison till hes 45, but then he did kill his grandparents. Punishment seems fair tho.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Rorschach said:
Or...that's a retarded interpretation of what he wrote.

Seriously, oh and let's not forget:

"Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal."

That post was out of left field, did you just read Letter from Birmingham Jail for the first time?
 

Waychel

Banned
Flynn said:
I'm sick of hearing this. It's just not true. Age and morality are not directly related. Values must be taught.

Shove a newborn baby in a closet and shovel food at them for 12 years and it will not walk out knowing the difference between right and wrong.

I must digress, because I do agree with you that morality is not an inherent part of us but a learned behavioral concept. However, I still believe that if you were to ask any 12-year-old in a public elementary school today whether murder was a crime or not, they would be more than capable of answering the question correctly. Although upbringing can be questioned, I am not of the opinion that such basic education and understanding of our laws can.
 

luxsol

Member
xsarien said:
At 12, yes, unless there's some serious arrested development taking place, you know the basic difference between right and wrong, certainly enough to know that taking a human life is wrong. Given that, he deserves to be locked up, but the help he needs is psychological. To be able to do such a thing at such a young age is indicative of something just being broken.
This all assumes that if he were raised correctly he would be broken. Otherwise, this is just a kid with a shitty childhood solving his problem the only way he knows how. The effects of his actions are something that he didn't actually think through which shows the level of maturity he's at. It's obvious he still has a juvenile's mentality, but he did an "adult crime"... whatever that means, considering the fact everyone over the age of 8 can commit these crimes.
 

Flynn

Member
Waychel said:
I must digress, because I do agree with you that morality is not an inherent part of us but a learned behavioral concept. However, I still believe that if you were to ask any 12-year-old in a public elementary school today whether murder was a crime or not, they would be more than capable of answering the question correctly. Although upbringing can be questioned, I am not of the opinion that basic education and understand of our laws cannot.


Don't you find it strange, then, that so many people continue to have a problem grasping them?
 
This is criminal. A 12 year old is not capable of understanding the consequences of murder. Whoever decided to try him as an adult should be jailed.
 

MIMIC

Banned
Flynn said:
Shove a newborn baby in a closet and shovel food at them for 12 years and it will not walk out knowing the difference between right and wrong.

And I assure you that the baby won't come out killing people, either. In your example, they may not know the difference between right and wrong, but they won't take the idea of "wrong" (by our current societal understanding) as a principal to live by.

The fact that the kid tried to conceal his wrongdoing (by burning down the house) and flee the scene (knowing that remaining on site would cause him to be held accountable for doing something so completely wrong) shows that he knew full well what he was doing.

I think that values (in this respect) are inherent because common sense teaches us to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
 

Mike

Member
Yeah, 12-year-olds just shouldn't be tried as adults, period. This is the reason we make a distinction between juveniles and adults.

Boy, depressing day on GA. First the Jotaro threads, now this.
 

Zilch

Banned
UltimateMarioMan said:
This is criminal. A 12 year old is not capable of understanding the consequences of murder. Whoever decided to try him as an adult should be jailed.

Happily, crazy people like you are not in power in this country.
 

Waychel

Banned
There is a difference between not perceiving or understanding a law and simply choosing to disregard it altogether. IMO, I’m inclined to lean towards obfuscation not being of issue here. What was at question in this case was the boy’s sense of judgment and emotional instabilities – not his ability to comprehend murder. I could be missing out on more, though… forgive me, but I didn’t click the link to read the entirety of the article. X_x
 
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Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
MIMIC said:
The fact that the kid tried to conceal his wrongdoing (by burning down the house) and flee the scene (knowing that remaining on site would cause him to be held accountable for doing something so completely wrong) shows that he knew full well what he was doing.

I think that values are inherent; because common sense teaches us "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Well that's an excellent justification for locking the fucker up actually. He obviously did know what he was doing. Besides, to all the defenders of this punk, don't you remember being 12? I do, and when I was stealing chocolate bars from the store I sure as shit knew that was wrong.

If he's too dumb to realise the consequences of his actions at 12, then lock him up anyway.
 

Mike

Member
catfish said:
Besides, to all the defenders of this punk, don't you remember being 12? I do, and when I was stealing chocolate bars from the store I sure as shit knew that was wrong.

I don't think what you knew at 12 is at issue here. I doubt your life circumstances share much in common with this kid.
 
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Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Mike said:
I don't think what you knew at 12 is at issue here. I doubt your life circumstances share much in common with this kid.

I doubt any circumstances excuse shooting your grandparents in the face with a shotgun and then burning their house down and then taking off when you are 12. I also think the defenders of this kid are an example of Political correctness gone way to far. He's broken, put him in the can't be fixed pile.
 

luxsol

Member
UltimateMarioMan said:
This is criminal. A 12 year old is not capable of understanding the consequences of murder. Whoever decided to try him as an adult should be jailed.
Blah blah blah.
Most adults don't even get passed the childhood state (mentally) either, so should they not be tried as adults either? You can tell who those people are because they're the thiefs that take without taking into account the consequences of their actions (easiest example i can think of). They think they'll get away with it and that's that.
It's a very selfish mentality.

I think what Waychel said fits my view. All non-retarded people (not counting children under the age of 8) understand the concept of death and a murder is a murder, even if they don't take into account what can happen to them afterward.
 

Mike

Member
I'm not defending him so much as condemning you as part of a system that ignores red flags, then blindly locks up the products of their ignorance for life.

catfish said:
He's broken, put him in the can't be fixed pile.

Case in point.
 

Baron Aloha

A Shining Example
I'd normally be the first person to stand up and say that this was the right decision but in this case I'm not so sure. I spent years and years dealing with depressed and otherwise mentally disturbed people. If this kid was 12 years old and on Zoloft then something was definitely wrong with him. These kinds of people know right from wrong but they are often unable to control themselves because of several chemical imbalances in their brains. Doctors often spend months and sometimes years tweaking the medications for these people and all these changes in meds can wreak havok on a person's mental state. I would not be the least bit surprised if he snapped, came to his senses, and then burned the house down in a panic to try and hide it (face it, 12 year olds can do some stupid shit). If there ever was a case where the insanity defense was justified it was probably this one. What happened was terrible but this kid did not deserve 30 years in prison. Its sad that the prosecuter and the judge apparently don't understand the nature of this boy's condition. Heck, a lot of people out there don't understand really.
 

Minotauro

Finds Purchase on Dog Nutz
To everyone defending trying this 12 year old as an adult:

Can you imagine a circumstance where a 12 year should be legally allowed to have sex with an adult?

It just seems like there's a double standard here. The argument for age of consent laws has always been that a person under the age of 18 isn't old enough to understand the consequences of sex. I always assumed that was the reasoning for why we don't try children as adults for crimes like this as well.
 

Waychel

Banned
Mike said:
I'm not defending him so much as condemning you as part of a system that ignores red flags, then blindly locks up the products of their ignorance for life.

The boy will get help while he is incarcerated and in the meantime he won't be an immediate threat or danger to others. Although it is true that he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with good behavior and psychiatric endoresement he could be out in 13 depending on the state.
 
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Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Mike said:
I'm not defending him so much as condemning you as part of a system that ignores red flags, then blindly locks up the products of their ignorance for life.



Case in point.

I'm sorry what? I'm not even from this kids country I didn't do shit stop blaming his murder on my ignorance. I'm all for helping troubled teens, but when one goes on a rampage and SHOOTS HIS GRANDPARENTS IN THE FACE, he needs to be thrown over the crazy cliff. Seriously just read this sentance.

He shot his grandparents in the face, burned down their house and then took off in their car.

Lets get this poor guy a hot drink and a blanket....

What's your solution to this problem. Mine is lock him up so society doesn't have to deal with him, there is a line and he crossed it, no more helping. Oh and let's throw in a "Youth aid program get's reviewed" for god measure.
 
Gonaria said:
Somethings wrong when a 12 year-old can be tried as an adult.

yeah, lets just free this little fucker when he turns 18. I'm sure he'll be a nice contributer to society. Drugs or no drugs, nobody who does the shit this kid did should see the outside of a cell ANY time soon.
 
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