If you were cut off from society since 1994, you probably will have trouble rejoining.

[shortylickens]

Now 41, man who killed 4-year-old at age 13 granted parole

A New York man who was 13 years old when he killed a 4-year-old boy with a rock has been granted parole

abcnews.go.com

I think maybe they should have just executed him.

 

[pmv]

Heck of a contrast to the case of the killers of Jamie Bulger - they only served 8 years (though one of them has since been repeatedly locked up again for committing further offenses).

I don't know, these cases are so horrific and outside one's understanding that it's hard to have an opinion on what the correct response should be. Does seem to emphasise that US and UK have very different approaches to sentencing, though.

 

[rmacd02]

Kid was 13! Jeez, you want to start executing kids!

Disclosure, I believe execution is wrong in all cases.

 

[TheELF]

People in jail are not cut off from society, they just have a limited access to it, they still get to watch TV and movies and can have access to technology like computers, consoles and the likes.
Just saying.

 

[woolfe9998]

Recidivism statistics for homicide: about 60% will commit another felony within 9 years of release, though only 2.7% will commit another homicide in the same timeframe.

Justice Research and Statistics Association

All that said, every offender is different. Particularly in the case of an offender of that age, I would put heavy weight on at least two independent psych evaluations to determine the likelihood of re-offending.

 

[pauldun170]

Interesting case but a bit boilerplate

There, in the quiet and safe New York village of Savona, Smith strangled Derrick, dropped a pair of large rocks on the boy’s head, and after Derrick was dead, undressed the body and sodomized the child with a tree limb. Then Smith opened the canvas bag where Derrick had put his lunch, stuffed a sandwich bag down the boy’s throat, and poured the boy’s red Kool-Aid from his Thermos into his wounds.
Derrick’s will to live was strong. When Smith began choking the boy, Derrick screamed and began to kick and throw punches. After less than a minute, the boy stopped fighting and Smith assumed he was dead. When Smith let go of the boy, Derrick again began gasping for air. It was then that Smith tried to stuff the sandwich bag in his mouth. Derrick bit his finger.

Smith picked up a 24-pound rock and smashed the boy’s head 12 times, finally killing him.

Over the course of the next few hours, Smith returned several times to the murder site and moved the boy’s body to a less-visible pile of rocks beneath a copse of trees.

While she was pregnant, Smith’s mother took medication that some experts believe had an impact on him. However, even his psychological experts denied that the drug was directly responsible for his heinous crime.

The drug was linked to Smith’s physical appearance and characteristics. As a toddler Eric threw temper tantrums and banged his head on the floor.

When he began school the cruelty of his fellow children took over.

His deformed ears, his thick glasses, and his speech impediment made him a target for bullies and teasing. His bright red hair and freckles invited attacks from other children and many who knew him acknowledged that as a child he was almost totally friendless.

“He’d come home often on the bus crying,” his mother told the jury at his trial. “They would keep picking at him, throwing things at him, no matter what he said or did.”

His stepfather, who admitted having a “hot temper” of his own, confirmed this.

“They kept picking on him no matter what he said or did,” he said.

Smith’s stepfather also testified to his own contribution to Eric’s lack of self-esteem.

“Well, for quite a few years, I had a little hot temper myself,” he admitted.” There’s a lot of things I said: ‘Kick their butt up over their shoulders,’ ’sick and tired of their crap,’ ’sick and tired of you,’ ’swat them upside the head.’”

His parents’ way of helping their son was minimal at best.

“I just told him that he has to learn to stick up for himself,” his mother testified.

Evidence arose over the years that Smith’s stepsister, Stacy, was sexually abused by Ted Smith. “He molested me. I’d want to know if he was molested. There had been something bothering him. Sometimes I think he saw my stepdad’s face when he did it.” However there was no evidence that Smith was sexually abused. Smith himself told the parole board there was no abuse.

At least two residents, Marlene Heskell and Archie LeBaron, said they saw the boy -- who stands barely five feet tall -- kicked fiercely by his stepfather, a strapping six-footer. Mrs. Heskell's son Jason was Eric's friend; Eric often stayed overnight at the Heskell house. She said that "Eric has been through a lot. A lot of people here, deep down, feel he was driven to it." She was subpoenaed, but not called to testify.


Residents characterized Ted Smith as an aggressive, physical man who was embarrassed by his stepson, a failure both athletically and academically.

“After quite a few years of verbal abuse, and having been told that I’m nothing, I shut down my feelings so I wouldn’t feel the emotional pain which made me vulnerable and weak,” he told the board. “But the damage was done. I began to believe that I was nothing and a nobody. And my outlook on life was dark.

“I felt that when I went to school I was going to hell because that’s what it was for me. It was hell.”

His first targets for revenge were animals. Smith strangled a neighbor’s cat, drowned birds he caught, and shot at dogs with a BB gun.

The years of cruelty produced a young man who suffered from “intermittent explosive disorder,” an impulse control disorder that, as it implies, results in an inability to rein in one’s angry emotional responses. Some research has shown that a brain chemical called serotonin plays a role in causing or enhancing this disorder.