Lawrence King's killer to be tried as an adult

http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2008/07/lawrence-kings.html

I am terribly conflicted here. Criminal penalties are, and should be, designed to reflect both the intent of the actor and the result of the act. In both cases here, Brandon McIrney was about as bad as it gets. This was premeditated murder. This wasn't a kid snapping and picking up the nearest object to beat a person down. This wasn't a kid getting behind the wheel and speeding running a person over. This was a kid going to his house, getting a gun, loading the gun, taking the gun to school, hiding the gun in a book, getting up, sneaking behind Lawrence King's head, shooting him point blank in the head, and then running away to elude capture. Clearly the result was awful as Lawrence is dead.

As a juvenile Brandon would get 6 years (or five if he is out on bail now). Six years, for that act, isn't enough. Maybe if Brandon were to truely repent and changed in those six years I might see it differently, but that is unknowable. Six years isn't enough. People with grams of crack get 6 years. People who break into stores get 6 years. Murders, should get more than six years.

As an adult, Brandon would likely spend decades in prison. That is too much. The fact Brandon was a kid should matter some. He shouldn't have to spend his entire life behind bars for what he did. Kid's aren't adults.

And that is the rub. I am like a baseball arbitrator faced with two choices that I feel are both wrong and have to try to decide between the two and not what I think is right. And I just don't know, because it depends on something I just don't know. What will Brandon be like at age 21, or 25, or 30. Will a 21 year old Brandon still want to shoot transexuals who dare make a pass at him? Will a 25 year old Brandon still hate fags so much he wants them dead? Or will a 30 year old Brandon decide to be a foster parent for a gay kid because of his first hand knowledge of how rough it can be to be gay. I just don't know. And neither do we. Heck, even he doesn't.

I wish there were a middle ground here. Maybe an adult trial with a split sentence where if he proves himself to be worthy he can be released after say 10 years. We have decided not to let judges, be judges. That is too bad here. We should let a judge come up with his own decent solution. Instead we have two bad choices, and I for one, don't know which one to choose.

I also wonder if he'll ever change. I'm sure he didn't learn this type of behavior without someone there to teach him. Let's hope the sentence is long enough for the sake of justice and effective enough for the sake of rehabilitation.

What will Lawrence be like at age 21, or 25, or 30? We'll never know--not under any circumstances.

I don't have a problem with Brandon spending decades in prison. It's still shorter than the sentence he imposed on Lawrence.

and honestly it weighs on me a lot. That is why 6 years isn't enough. He should get longer. I just don't see 40 or 50 years.

40 or 50 would be the minimum.

While that wouldn't satisfy the American punisher posse, I think it's reasonable.

sadly I don't think it is an option

They will always be a danger. The kid is a sociopath.

Unfortunately, he'll get out eventually.

I'm a firm believer that sociopaths should be put away forever, for the sake of society.

He could get life which in california means life.