“All things truly wicked start from an innocence.”~~Ernest Hemingway

In 2009 eleven year old Jordan Brown, of Lawrence County, PA, was accused of shooting his father’s pregnant finance’ with a shotgun while she slept. Both Kenzie Houk and the child she was carrying died and Jordan Brown was charged with two counts of homicide, because Kenzie Houk was eight and a half months pregnant. Since that day, questions have arisen about Jordan Brown. What could have driven a child to such an act? Should he be tried as an adult or as a child?

Amnesty International got involved with the case at one point due to the PA Attorney General pushing for Jordan to be tried as an adult. If convicted of first-degree murder as an adult, Jordan Brown would have faced life in prison without parole. Amnesty International’s Director for the Americas stated, “Putting a child as young as Jordan Brown at risk of life in prison with no chance of parole is inconsistent with international human rights.”  They went on to argue, “The USA is the only country we know of in the world that pursues life imprisonment without parole against children, and it does so regularly.”

After much legal wrangling, the courts determined that Jordan Brown will be tried as a juvenile, and if convicted will serve in a detention center until he is twenty-one years old. But the nagging questions about what drove an 11-year-old child to have allegedly committed murder remain. We generally consider childhood as a time of innocence. When that time intersects with criminality, not only is the child punished but society at large is should be faced with culpability. Therefore, a new issue has arisen. Should the proceedings in the trial of Jordan Brown remain open to the public?

On the surface it would seem there would be lessons to be learned from these proceedings, and not just prurient interest. Until we hear from defense attorneys, we will not know what might have driven Jordan Brown allegedly to have committed the crimes of which he is accused. Many children have access to guns within their homes, but an eleven-year-old? Was the weapon not secured? Children at that age rarely have impulse control. Did Jordan Brown have the emotional and cognitive ability to distinguish between right and wrong? And what, if any, red flags may have been missed by Jordan’s family?

These questions arise, not as a defense of this alleged act, but rather as a means by which we as a society might learn. Children in our society are faced with too much violence, from video games to Internet access where even a child can view that which is inappropriate. It is difficult to help a child maintain their innocence these days. They seem to face problems never dealt with by us at their age. Perhaps viewing the court proceedings will enable adults to be more cognizant of children at risk in such open environs as our society and to take the necessary steps to ensure that ‘wicked things do not begin at the time of innocence.’ These court proceedings should be open to the public. It is time for us to look at ourselves in the mirror of our children.

—cher

On July 5, 2011 police in Fullerton, CA responded to a call about a “homeless-looking man” who may have been attempting to burglarize cars near a bus depot. What happened after that is sketchy at best, but we do know one thing: Kelly Thomas was placed on life support and died five days later do to injuries sustained in his confrontation with police. The case is being investigated and details are not being released until the investigation has been completed.

The question on everyone’s mind (outside of the police department) is not whether police used excessive force in their confrontation with Kelly Thomas, but whether, in fact, these were rogue cops who will be punished, after being accorded their due process in the investigation.  It certainly seems that Kelly Thomas did not get his due process of the law.

Kelly was a  homeless schizophrenic who, according to his father Ron Thomas, probably stopped taking his medication at the time of the encounter. Ron Thomas is a former Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy and in the video clips that were available, you could hear Kelly calling, “Dad, Dad, Dad,” as he was being tasered numerous times and beaten. After talking to witnesses and reporters, Ron Thomas stated that his son “was brutally beaten to death.” Since Kelly Thomas has been described as “sweet and never a threat,” why was such force used to subdue this 37 year old mentally-ill young man?

Police are trained in defusing hostility. Can it be that the use of tasers has still not been regulated and monitored by police departments? It is an important issue which I addressed two years ago here:

http://askcherlock.com/2009/03/tasers-stunning-need-for-regulation/

The other issue is that of excessive force. It is a phrase we hear too often these days to describe the actions of police who are supposed to “Protect and Serve” even those who may be guilty. That guilt, however, is to be determined by a court of law, not by rogue officers who take the law into their own hands with tasers. It also begs the question about whether police officers are given training in recognizing the mentally ill, so many of whom are homeless, and how to properly handle such cases. Kelly Thomas had no weapon.

—cher

Image via Wikipedia

For most people,  there are a number of events that occur in their lives that are indelibly “time-stamped” in their minds.   For my generation several of the major events would be the assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.   Over the last few decades there have also been plenty of other “time-stamped” events, such as the O.J. Simpson and the Michael Jackson verdicts, the attack on the World Trade center and the election of  President Barack Obama in 2008.   We all have our own set of events, both good and bad, that make  lasting impressions in our memory.  For example, just about every American over the age of eighteen could tell you exactly where they where, and precisely what they were doing when they heard about the terrorist attacks of 911.   For many people in America and around the world, the Casey Anthony trial has become one of those unforgettable, time-stamped events.

The Casey Anthony trial had all the elements needed to capture the attention of the nation, and came at a time when Americans sorely needed something to divert their attention away from soaring budget deficits, high unemployment, mind-numbing gasoline prices, endless foreign wars and a hopelessly deadlocked Congress.  For a period lasting over a month, we  listened with great interest as the prosecution team laid out the “peoples’” case against Casey Anthony, convincing us that no-one other than Casey  had the motivation, opportunity and means to kill her young daughter, Caylee.  The heinous nature of the crime, the dis-likable character of Casey and her whole family, and the body of evidence (albeit, circumstantial) resulted in the vast majority of  Americans calling for a “lethal injection” for Casey.  We Americans could do nothing about joblessness and high gas prices, but we could at least get some small pleasure out of watching a lying, self-centered, party-girl be punished for her crime.   The jury, however, decided otherwise, and “robbed” Americans of their moment of justice.

In retrospect, it is not so difficult to understand why the jury was impelled to acquit Casey Anthony of all the major charges.   The prosecution failed to establish and prove a motivation for Casey’s actions; further they could not show how Caylee was killed, when Caylee was killed, and where Caylee was killed.  The only thing they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt was that Casey was a liar, and that her family was dis-functional.  If one single shred of credible, physical evidence would have linked Casey to the body of her daughter, then the jury’s verdict would have likely been very different.  However, that evidence was never discovered, and the jury had no choice but to accept that reasonable doubt existed.  Regardless of the reactions of an outraged American public, Casey Anthony will soon be set free.  For many us the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial will become another one of those “time-stamped” events that will painfully live in our minds forevermore.  This particular event will be filed away in the section of our brain labeled “justice denied”, along with the O.J. Simpson verdict.  Life goes on!

Rich