While I understand your reluctance, and if he had committed another, less violent crime I might agree. Rather than repeating my arguements which we have been over before, let me leave you with this to ponder. It was only a couple of generations ago that kids this age were getting married and starting families. In fact, if you were to get technical about it, many of the grandparents of people today could be charged as pedophiles for the age at which they got married. Even today, if a girl gets pregnant at 14, the state doesn’t mandate that she must give up the child due to her age, but rather she is judged to be mature enough to raise her child.

In many countries, especially in the middle east, 14 year olds carry weapons and kill in the name of their rebellion or religion. I am not trying to justify this, but rather I am saying that at 14, they are capable of making life and death decisions and they understand the consequences.

We have reached a mindset in this country that anyone under 18 is merely a child, innocent and naieve, but reality shows us a different perspective. These days, a 14 year old in the inner city is as likely to be a member of a gang as not. We may want them to be seen as children, but they function as adults.

While I agree that it is a tragedy that one so young should be brainwashed and recruited into a system of hate, the fact remains that many do face these challenges every day, yet not all become cold-blooded killers. I also agree that his parents and some elements of society deserve to be on trial with him, sharing his fate due to their participation, directly or indirectly. Church officials should also be on trial here.

The fact remains that he alone made the choice to bring a gun to school, and shoot a classmate in the back of the head like a coward. He could have chosen to merely beat up King, and while that is still wrong, it would have allowed King to continue his life.

We should be careful that we don’t set a precedent that 14 year olds can be used as “hitmen” by those not willing to risk the penalty themselves. If we allow McInerney to walk away with merely a slap on the wrist, how soon before other teenage homophobes and racists use this as a defense to get away with murder. In some circles, doing time in juvenile hall is seen as a badge of honor and gives them “street creds”. Is this really the message we want to send?

I fall on the liberal side on many issues. Especially our get tough on crime mentality. I think our over-crowded prisons, over-worked legal system, and poor rehabilitation of our prisoners suggests we have a lot of room for improvement.

But having said that, I think we should remain tough on violent crimes and or hate crimes. Though in all likelihood we will make a career criminal out of Brandon if we pursue this trial. Should we? I think there are hundred’s of questions that must be asked and answered in his case.

With our get tough on crime mentality, I fear the DA will be more worried about showing his get tough on crime persona than justice being served. So we have to trust his lawyer will ask those questions and the jury will make the right decision.

James Withers Said: “And that’s the rub, no? The acts are adult like, but the kids doing them are still kids (no matter how serious the crimes).”

The point you raise falls into a very grey area. I guess it all boils down to how we define the word “kid”. Is the only determining factor age? In some instances, I would agree and say yes. The instance of the 8 year old who shot his father and a priest would be such a case where I would disagree with an adult trial. However, the courts have said more than once that some teens are capable of funtioning as an adult and indeed have awarded them adult status. This is the entire reasoning behind minor imancipation. Obviously, there is more to consider than the factor of age. If we perceive an adult as being one who is capable of making adult decisions, we also fall into a grey area. I know, and I’m sure you’ve met, guys our age that certainly do not make adult decisions when they persue annonymous unprotected sex or drug addiction.

Is the dividing line drawn when one understands the adult consequences to their actions? If so, then I would again have to advocate adult trial for McInerney. Children today are much more savy about laws than children of our generation. TV is saturated with crime and legal dramas and children today may often be more informed of legalities than many adults. The courts have determined that McInerney is competent to stand trial, so it is clearly not his lack of understanding of the consequences of his actions.

The truly sad part of this is that whether McInerney is tried as an adult or not, we are merely trying to fix the symptom of a much larger problem that isn’t even being addressed. If I were handeling the defense, I would put society on trial for perpetuating the notion that some human lives are worth less than others.

I don’t know his religion, but I note the name, the way it is spelled Mc, not Mac (Scottish), etc.

The people who perpetrate this kind of hatred and poison society need to be tried by all of us.

And it isn’t necessarily the low level priests, but the hierarchy. Why do they do this – 2 possible reasons

1. Their lies will be exposed’ and their house of cards will collapse.

2. They are another example, just like Minister Ted Haggard, of people who hate themselves for who they really are. And terrified into their own closet of shame and fear, they lash out at others who are also same sex attracted, in a desperate effort to keep their secret.

Add the King boy to the list of 3000 who commit suicide every year, and untold numbers who are murdered and beaten.

And don’t forget their Analogs on the Christian right best exemplified by Haggard, Barnes etc. And even the Ultra Orthodox Jews, (I am Jewish, my wife is Jewish btw), who called gays “worse then bird flu”. A call in my reading of that statement for genocide.

And last night in our temple a reform Jewish Rabbi spoke about GAza and the whole mideast /Israel Palestinian disaster. His comments about the Ultra orthodox were – they are just plain crazy ultra-nationalists, mixed with religious extremism.

The worst kind of people in the world in my view

I believe that if a 14 year old is to be tried by a jury of his peers… then there should be at least one 14 year old on that jury.

Kids’ brains don’t function the way adults’ do. The frontal lobe, the part in charge of reason and decision-making, isn’t fully devoloped until about age 20. I can see why when you’re 18 or even 16 you’re tried as an adult, because in spite of your brain you take on the responsibilites of an adult. But 15 year-olds shouldn’t be tried as if they had fully-devoloped decision-making skills.

Teenagers have always been bad decision-makers. Sometimes this ends in tragedy. McInerney needs some serious rehab, not punishment. Then again, the juvenile justice system is so messed up that he probably wouldn’t get appropriate counseling or get looked after at all.

The “he’s bad therefore he was an adult” crowd suffer from exactly the same mentality as those who said “Al Qaeda attacked us, so let’s invade Iraq”. Isn’t it funny how 15-year-olds are only adults when they do something bad?

If the kid killed was straight would it be any different? If McInerney came in to his class room and killed over a girl would that change the fact that he killed some one? Come on!

Even though I might not agree for the death penalty for kids under 16, I am not looking for an eye for an eye. My question is did McInerney ever hear about that killing was wrong? Didn’t he ever learn or hear about if you killed someone you forfeit your life either by prison or by death? If not then we need to start teaching that along with the 3 R’s.
What happen to the parent’s responsibility to teach right and wrong? (Yes, I know dad is dead now).
What about holding the religious leaders of his community responsible for their teaching about hate?
I don’t want to hear some religious leader whining about the gay kid deserved what he got. If it was your kid, would you accept that? Or Are you one of those who give your kid a rock when they ask for loaf of bread?
And doesn’t say in your religion that you’re to love your neighbor as your God loves you? Or are you like the Pharisee who tried to do a con-job on Christ, to find a quick excuse and some fine print to get out of having to love their neighbor, as Christ has loved you? You remember; one of the same Pharisees who you claim killed your God, because they didn’t like being called on their selfish wrongs, steeling from the poor, keeping people away from the temple who were not good enough in their own Pharisaical sight, judging others wrongs with out walking in the other persons shoes, just like the same wrongs you do daily? I guess from your actions, your God’s love is really conditional, hu? I know some people believe in getting clean-up in their own sight, before they take a bath, hu? Then theirs that “good and faithful servant”, thing, “come into my kingdom because I was hungry and you fed me, lonely and poor in spirit and you visited me, naked and you clothed me”, that’s probably lost on you, along with why the Holy Roller got kicked out. That’s right you’re too busy speaking in tongues, telling people what they are doing wrong, doing the superior dance, and doing your empty heath and wealth thing. C.S. Lewis’ Uncle Wood Worm would be proud of you getting the masses to chase their own tails with empty dogma.

If you don’t believe in anything like this, this was not meant for you.

Even if you don’t believe in some deity, there’s the golden rule out there “do to other as you want them to do to you”. So you’re telling me this kid did not ever hear of that? If it was up to me, put this kid into prison for the rest of his life, just like they did for the murders of Mathew Shepard. I see this as no different. Let this kid have a real long time to think about what he did.