Nov 30 2008
Plea Deal For 8-year old - As It Should Be
Finally, they are coming to their senses when it comes to the 8-year old boy, in
Arizona, who killed two people, his own father, 29 year old Vincent Romero and his father’s renter Timothy Romans. The 8-year old was facing two counts of first degree murder and being tried as an adult. Asking myself a few questions I came up with this.
Does an 8-year old boy or girl for that matter, truly have a concept of distance in terms of miles and time (how many have taken an 8-year old on a long road trip and heard the question ‘are we there yet’). As well, they have no real concept of death, in terms of finality, time, in terms of years, life, in terms of death?
Also, when you, as a child, do not have the proper guides, in terms of parents, things get a little thrown askew in terms of how you view the world. Furthermore, if children do not have a clear understanding of other simpler concepts such as time, life and death then how can they be held responsible for having a true understanding of the complexities of right and wrong?
Now without even knowing what had gone before, there were different things that were occurring in the 8-year old boy’s life that can also disrupt a child’s way of thinking, his way of viewing the world – like the family dynamics of the break up of his original family and the remarriage of his father.
Another thing that has come to light lately is that there had been abuse by the father of the son. There is no way of knowing the true extent of the abuse because the abuser is dead and the child can be manipulated – children are highly suggestible. You can be sure the abuse was severe because even the grandmother commented “That if any 8-year old was capable of the crimes it would be him” or something along those lines; was it because of the abuse that she thought this or was he just born a “bad seed” and if it were the abuse why didn’t the grandmother step in to do something about it.
Another thing to consider when deciding on how to proceed would be, did the abuse have a sexual overtone or was it just physical abuse? If it were just physical how often did the abuse happen – the boy had reportedly verbalized to a Child Protective worker that his 1,000th spanking would be his last. Usually when someone is physically abusive they have a tendency to be verbally and emotionally abusive as well which would also play into the end result.
After having watched the videos of the police interrogating the child and listening to his child like answers, the authorities are finally coming to their senses and allowing for mental health evaluations and a plea deal in deciding how to proceed with the case. The plea deal will resolve the case without having to transfer it to adult court. They site the fact that the system is just not equipped to deal with an 8 year old charged with murder but it seems more plausible that they have understood the limited liability of the mental state of the child.
Whatever the reason for the plea deal, I for one am glad that the decision was made to get the boy some mental health help!!
And that’s the way I see it!!
