Oklahoma Teen Charged In Australian's Murder Asks For Juvenile Status
DUNCAN, Oklahoma - Attorneys for a 17-year-old charged as an adult in the shooting death of an Australian baseball player are asking the court to reconsider a decision that he be tried as an adult.
Chancey Luna is charged with first-degree murder in the August 2013 shooting death of 22-year-old Christopher Lane.
The Duncan Banner reports that Luna's attorneys said in court documents filed Friday that a potential sentence of life in prison either with or without the possibility of parole would be unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.
Lane, of Melbourne, Australia, was a member of the East Central University baseball team in Ada when he was gunned down while jogging during a trip to visit his girlfriend's parents in Duncan.
http://www.newson6.com/story/28588852/duncan-teen-charged-in-australians-death-asks-for-juvenile-status
Personally, I think he's old enough to know that killing someone just for the hell of it is wrong.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't blame them for asking for it. The slender man girls I *think* are only 12/13 and being tried as adults (first degree attmepted murder vs 2nd degree attempted murder).
His attorneys' reasoning:
http://www.duncanbanner.com/news/to-be-or-not-to-be-attorneys-argue-chancey-luna/article_0ec4da82-d046-11e4-9f22-b7a9530dbd0a.html
“The defendant contends that since he is a juvenile, the infliction of life or life without the possibility of parole, if convicted, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment as condemned in the U.S. Constitution,” the motion stated.
Luna’s attorneys also argued increasing the jury pool for the trial would allow for more equal representation of African Americans in the jury.
Of the 44,919 people who lived in Stephens County in 2013, 2.1 percent were African American, according to the motion.
“Increasing the number of potential jurors called to jury duty for the trial proceedings in this matter would increase the likelihood of a better representative class of African Americans, relative to the total percentage in the judicial district population,” Luna’s attorneys argued.
Also - I thought the one that turned against the other two - his narrative that got him out of this made it manslaughter or second degree murder?
Good, bad, indifferent -
it's the American justice system. Everyone is entitled to do whatever it takes to get the best defense and sentencing if found guilty.
