Prosecutors love using the word “heinous” (pronounced hee-nǝs), which means grossly evil, wicked, or reprehensible; abominable, atrocious, disgraceful, horrifying, monstrous, outrageous, scandalous, shocking. The word derives from the Old French word “haine,” which means “hatred” or “to hate,” and is a powerful cue—a catalyst—for inciting hatred among the public.
“Such a brutal and heinous crime deserves the maximum prison sentence,” they often say.
I usually give prosecutors a pass when they use the word “heinous” to describe the acts of hardened adult criminals, but when they use it to incite hatred for a child—especially someone like Alex King or Cristian Fernandez, children who have been abused and driven to some desperate act by the adults in their lives—well, this is where things cross a moral line for me.
“Adult crime” and “adult time” inevitably find their ways into the prosecutors’ next statements—the rhyming slogan is so effective in getting folks to turn off their critical thinking skills. It has such a nice ring to it and seems to make so much sense if you just don’t think.
But if you do think about it, if you think about what it means to be inciting hatred for a child—even a child who has been led horribly astray by the abusive, negligent, selfish and self-absorbed adults in his or her life—this defiles the most sacred and fundamental values of civilized humanity. This is truly heinous.
It would be easy to incite a hate fest against reprehensible prosecutors like David Rimmer, Jim Oliver, John Bongivengo, and Angela Corey—but today I want to draw your attention to a responsible prosecutor who made a sincere effort to do the right thing in the case of the 12-year-old boy from Burlington, Colorado, who killed both his parents, Charles and Marilyn Long, and injured two of his siblings in March.
A couple days ago a colleague sent me a link to a radio interview by Colorado Public Radio’s Ryan Warner with Bob Watson, the Burlington district attorney who struggled to achieve the best and most balanced disposition of the case for both the child and the interests of the public. This interview runs fifteen minutes, and I encourage you to please take the time to listen.
Listen to District Attorney Bob Watson interviewed on Colorado Public Radio
Even if you do not agree with everything Mr. Watson says, this interview provides an excellent example of the thinking process this ethical prosecutor employed in reaching a difficult decision.
Violent crimes committed by kids—and parricides, especially—rarely arise out of circumstances that are black-and-white enough to be reduced to snappy slogans. Justice, true justice, is more nuanced and requires real thought and a commitment to higher values than mere political ambition.
In this case justice has been well-served by a prosecutor who deserves our admiration.
۞
Groove of the Day
Wandervogel Diary 
Wow. I am impressed. Look at the homework this guy did before he made a decision. This is a man with true integrity. I plan to contact him and commend him on his decision.
Regarding his efforts to help change the legislature of the juvenile system, I hope that he continues to do his homework and that his efforts remain aware of the age and maturity levels of children that wind up in the criminal system. It appears the juvenile system does need revamping so that children are not transferred so easily into the adult system but that revamping must always include language that will not punish the child for the rest of their lives. I mean to say that because of their young age, they should still be eligible for a clear record that will permit them to go to college and obtain work freely. The language should also include the exclusion of word “heinous” as a means to hold that child longer. If any reconstruction occurs within the juvenile system, I feel it has to remain in constant protection of the juvenile to ensure there is no room to overtly lose sight of the age and maturity of the individual that is in the criminal system.
It is important to establish boundaries within the juvenile system, otherwise we will see continued over-charging within the juvenile system by prosecutors that are not ethical like Mr. Watson. I do not feel a child that is in a rehabilitative environment should ever be transferred to an adult prison. I feel this is very wrong. I feel the whole process that starts a child in the juvenile system, should not encounter an adult prison setting and I do not think this is unreasonable. There are many alternative programs that can be evaluated or developed here. If it is not established right from the start, abuse of the system will definitely occur.
Also, I do not feel any plea should be immediately implemented when a juvenile enters the system. That is to say that a child will serve seven years in juvenile rehabilitation, then five more in an adult prison, etc. I do not feel any language like this should even be an option when a juvenile is sentenced. It is important to prohibit any room for unbalanced sentences that fail to focus on the best interests of that child. When children are involved in criminal activity, it should never be about the length of time and should always be about the quality of time. I know this sounds soft on crime but I do not think it is when you consider the ages of some of these children in the system. They need protected too.
I agree with you Jeanne. Whatever progress is made for the juvenile in the juvenile setting (even if it is small) will surely be undone if the child is sent on to an adult facility. Any measure of rehab or progress made should be capitalized on and continued in a juvenile setting in a nurturing and wholesome environment conducive to healing and mending and preparing the child for a productive life,hopefully with a sense of belonging and acceptance and most of all forgiveness. Even for the juvenile who has grown up in a juvenile prison, movement to an adult facility at the maximum age can result in the inmate becomming prey to hardened adult criminals (with nothing to lose). Whenever you’re the youngest, you are a target whether you know the ropes or not. Juveniles who have aged out and go to an adult facility are the youngest.
I feel this nonsense of blended sentences is not productive because any progress made is lost in the adult system. The child may be permanently lost. Is that the goal?
Just a little something about the teenaged brain. Any parent can tell you this, but it is amazing that so many prosecutors seem willing to ignore these differences, despite having been parents themselves.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text
I’m glad this prosecutor did his homework and gave serious thought to the situation. I was following this case and there is something that he isn’t saying – although he mentions that the boy was homeschooled and had no medical records, he failed to ask the bigger question – how does anyone in the US reach the age of 12 with no medical records?
There was something seriously wrong in that family and I expect it would have come out in court during a certification hearing. The prosecutor might have found himself facing a self defense claim on the two adults, or abused child syndrome or a number of other possible defenses. Remember that in the Cody Posey case in New Mexico, he not only killed his parents at age 14, but also his 11 year old step sister because she had actively participated in his abuse by providing information about his activities to the adults in such a way that he felt it led to greater and more extreme punishment. Posey, BTW, was recently released from youth prison after his 21st birthday,
My guess is that this case was very similar to the Posey case – not all abusers harm all their kids physically – some have large families and only abuse one kid systematically because that child exhibits characteristics or tendancies that they find repulsive in some way. Given that this was a hyper-religious family that kept this boy in a completely isolated home, we may never know the truth. We do know that his grandmother seemed to indicate that there was some form of abuse. So frankly – seven years is plenty of time. I expect that like Posey, he saw his younger siblings as agents of the abuse, or he was in a frenzy of violence after snapping and just kept going.
But this prosecutor isn’t exactly the nice guy you think he is – he advocates for so-called “blended sentences” which were pioneered in Texas and have led to abusive behavior. The kids are at the mercy of their jailers for “good reports” and we know that the jailers in Texas extracted sexual favors in exchange for those reports. There’s also the problemm of politics – when a kid comes up for release, a politically minded judge may decide to keep the kid locked up because of the possibility that if the child re-offends, the judge will be blamed. It’s happened numerous times with belnded sentencing. These sentences can be very dangerous – often the kids have to depend upon parents and/or other relatives to push their case, and the parents might not want the kid released. Some parents become part of the problem and push for a continued sentence even though the child should be released because the parent doesn’t want responsibility or because the parent harbors ill feelings toward the child (especially if the child killed a sibling).
If the decision on whether to extend or release at adulthood could be guaranteed to be logical and unfettered by ill-will or politics, that would be fine, but we know that will never be the case. We need determinate sentences that can keep a youth locked up until age 25 if necessary in age-appropriate facilities, with an extension only granted if there is clear evidence that the young person will reoffend – and such a hearing should involve an attorney for the offender. That’s the old California system and it worked very well until it was superceded by adult trials for 14 year olds on up.
I’ve always say that Adult crime adult time may be a catchy sentence but that’s all, it doesn’t work, is senseless and useless. Is really appalling to hear the uncle’s boy to tell that he was hoping the kid will get life in prison not for punishment but for justice. To me that says a lot about the kind of person he is. I’m sorry but only a sickening coward would ask for a child to expend the rest of his life in prison and still call it justice. And that there was not abuse on the house I’m not going to argue about it because obviously I don’t know how this kid’s life was, but they say the same about Colt and it turned out that he was beaten and molested so…. there’s not evidence of abuse, sorry I don’t believe it. Only the fact that the uncle ask for life implies abuse. since prosecutors like to use so much the word henious, let’s say that LWOP for childrens is without any doubt a henious crime.
Now, I’m happy to see that there are some prosecutors with some integrity still left out there. This prosecutor did the right thing since the alternative was consecutive lifes on adult court. But then he confuses me with the 24 year sentence for a 12 year old. Paul got 25 just one more year and five in probation. If this man thinks this is justice he has honestely, a perverted sense of justice. let’s see 24 years for a 12 year old he will be 36 years when he is out, definetely he will not know how to act on the world, let’s not forget about what kind of person will be out after half his life getting a degree on crime and how to be a better criminal, living along with hardened criminals. Didn’t the uncle said that he had been working on a correctional facility and what that would do even to a decent person. So I wonder what the prosecutions intentions really are, regarding his efforts to help “change the legislature of the juvenile system”, Giving the chance in juvenile to hand 20, 30 or 40 years like in texas maybe, where is been know how these so called blended sentencing works? I agree alawyer sadly this are the consecuences of blended sentencing.
Juvenile Detention Sex Abuse Scandal 1/2 Texas, Officials Covered Up Pedophile Ring
As Jeanne has very well said “it should never be about the length of time and should always be about the quality of time. I do not feel a child that is in a rehabilitative environment should ever be transferred to an adult prison. I feel this is very wrong. I feel the whole process that starts a child in the juvenile system, should not encounter an adult prison setting and I do not think this is unreasonable. There are many alternative programs that can be evaluated or developed here. If it is not established right from the start, abuse of the system will definitely occur.”
I 100% agree on that.
Let’s fight for childrens to be treated as the childrens they are not to give room for more abuse with those so called blended sentences.
This is another unjust case Justice for Juveniles wants to fight for. This is a about a man who is now 29 and enter in the system at the age of 15 for a non violent crime, this is how adult crime and adult time really works. This man never killed anyone now he is been in prison since he was 15 and he’s still there, Why? where else, but Penssilvania.
http://justice4juveniles.com/index.php?action=collapse;c=11;sa=collapse;sesc=e9b88db6d7ef07ea68611cedab4bc3d4#11
Andre is a 29 year old man unjustly imprisoned and heavily targeted for his filing of grievances and lawsuits in defense of human rights inside the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC). By highlighting Andre’s battles against wrongful convictions and solitary confinement, we aim to bring greater public awareness to the injustices of the U.S. criminal justice system.
Andre Jacob’s childhood was plagued with abuse and alcoholism in his immediate family. In 1997, when he was only 15 years old, Andre was first sentenced to prison for non-violent offenses. In 2001 Andre was placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for a lawsuit he had filed after being assaulted by a guard. Andre remains in solitary confinement to this day. He has barely had a life outside of prison.
In 2005, at the Federal Courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andre was dragged onto an elevator by U.S. marshals in front of his grandmother and beaten unconscious after the completion of a civil rights suit he had brought. Federal marshals conspired to frame Andre for assaulting them, despite his being cuffed and shackled at the time, and he was sentenced to an additional 17 years in prison as a result.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepetitionsite.com%2F1%2Ffree-andre-jacobs-he-has-suffered-for-ten-years-as-a-victim-of-solitary-confinement-in-pennsylvania%2F&h=uAQDs3ptn
Andre is a certified paralegal and has used his legal brilliance to win a $185,000 civil rights action against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; proving claims of conspiracy, obstruction of access to courts, retaliation and defamation of character.
Andre’s been held in solitary confinement over 10 years and is repeatedly subjected to acts of intimidation and torture by prison guards and officials for being a human rights defender. Still, through letters and other forms of communication with the outside world he has managed to sustain his sanity.
To alawyer,
I agree with your insight here. I clearly gave kudos to the prosecutor too quickly. However, he summed up his reasoning as the possibility of the defense losing and the child spending the rest of his life behind bars. He appears very intelligent and likely did not voice the abuse factor and the chance of the prosecution losing a case as well. Nonetheless, I am glad the child is within the juvenile system and that he weighed the options before making a decision. His decision was a humane one considering the child’s age.
Regarding the child’s family life. It is quite possible that he was a target of abuse while no other children in the home were. I have a friend that is very vocal in the Christian faith. She was a target of sexual harassment by a person of faith who was to be a mentor to her The mentor had experienced sexual abuse as a child. While my friend could not be certain why she was the target, she surmised the possibility of herself having the characteristics of the mentors’ past abuser. One never really knows what triggers abuse but there are many factors involved. I hope this child comes to terms with whatever it was that drove his actions. Very sad.
I too have concerns about any changes made to the juvenile system. My fear is that if there is room for extension of time, political incentives will be the driving force behind such extensions. This is why it is important to be mindful of any legislature addressing such changes.
Oh, if only Alex and Derek , James (and others) had an ethical prosecutor like Bob Watson and not that sleazebag who prosecuted them. it would be a different outcome. More power to his elbow. £ance (and The Gang).