Teen with 47 IQ gets 100 years in sex abuse case

i'm guessing this will be an easy appeal


PARIS, Texas - A teenager who has profound mental disabilities was sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in a sex abuse case involving his 6-year-old neighbor.

Aaron Hart, 18, of Paris, was arrested and charged after a neighbor found him fondling her stepson in September. The teen pleaded guilty to five counts, including aggravated sexual assault and indecency by contact, and a jury decided his punishment.

Lamar County Judge Eric Clifford decided to stack the sentences against Hart after jurors settled on two five-year terms and three 30-year terms, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday. The judge said neither he nor jurors liked the idea of prison for Hart but they felt there was no other option.

"In the state of Texas, there isn't a whole lot you can do with somebody like him," Clifford said.

Diagnosed as mentally disabled
Hart has an IQ of 47 and was diagnosed as mentally disabled as a child. He never learned to read or write and speaks unsteadily.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31213058/

what the fuck goes on down there?

But I did and guess what - I was right.

Texas or Florida.

In Florida he'd be going to the gas chamber.

Obviously, if he's doing stuff like this, he can't be in public, but prison isn't the place for him.

I worked for 15 years as a Mental Health counselor, much of the work involved dealing with police
and courts.
This was in mostly rural areas, but I also worked in Mobile, Al. and Huntsville.

"Mentally ILL" and "Mentally Retarded" were the same, in most people's minds.
It all added up to "crazy" and "crazy meant "unpredictable and violent".
Police made no distinction.
If I had a dollar for every time some 6 foot 250# cop looked at my 5'5" frame and acted astounded that I would actually walk up to a "crazy" person and talk to them, I would be set for life.
In fact, most police would step back and make room for me to go talk to a "crazy" person.

Over the years, three of my clients were shot and killed by the local police when they were standing in their yards or the street, ( 2 of them were naked ) and acting "crazy" but had no weapons on them,
were not threatening anyone, and family members were begging police to call
"the Mental Health people" to come get the client.

I could write a book.

:hi:

a 47 I.Q. makes him incapable of understanding his defense - It would be like trying to discuss science with Dubya. How sad. He needs to be protected not put in a place where he will be horribly abused and beaten by the inmates. He had no idea what he was doing to the 6 year old was wrong. WTF is wrong with the legal system in TX? 100 years... Hell, you can shoot your wife in TX and not get 100 years. : http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/072808dnmetwifekilled.f973836.html

By DEBRA DENNIS / The Dallas Morning News
debdennis@dallasnews.com
Freddie Willhite, who shot his wife last year and then called 911, was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison.

Mr. Willhite, 69, pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of murder in the death of Donna Willhite, 65.

Criminal District Court Judge Mike Thomas overruled a motion by Mr. Willhite to withdraw his plea.

The plea, Judge Thomas said, was made voluntarily.

Mrs. Wilhite was shot twice in the stomach at the couple’s home in the 8400 block of Gifford Lane in North Richland Hills Mr. Willhite called police to report "some type of disturbance between him and his wife,” officials said.

Mr. Willhite will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison.

Mr. Willhite told the 911 operator his wife had ridiculed him throughout his life.

He surrendered to police without incident.

First, people with cognitive disabilities were kept at home, cared for by family.
Then, they were shipped off to institutions.
When the institutions were exposed for the hellholes they inevitably become, public sentiment shifted to getting people out of institutions and into community-based settings.
At first, life is good. Costs of care in a community setting are dramatically less than an institution. However, because institutions are considered necessary for some people, the underutilized institutions experience a huge cost per resident, usually borne by taxpayers.
So, instead of consolidating institutions, some not particularly farsighted legislators decided to cut funding for residential care.
Without that residential supervision, stuff like this can happen. Most of us grow out of playing doctor when we're 5 or 6. When your IQ is 47, you haven't matured, only your hormones have.
So, we ship 'em back off to institutions.

It seems likely in this case that the offender wasn't equipped to "know right from wrong" in this case. From his perspective the neighbor could simply have been just another kid.

Am I making excuses for him? Yes.



My son is 10. This quote makes me sad.

i'm surprised they didn't execute him.