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  • 12-year-old Murder Offered Deal

    Prosecutors offer deal in wrestling case

    Murder conviction and life sentence thrown out earlier this month

    WEST PALM BEACH, Florida - Prosecutors said Friday they would offer Lionel Tate a plea bargain that could mean almost immediate freedom for the boy whose murder conviction and life sentence for the slaying of a 6-year-old playmate were thrown out earlier this month.

    The deal is identical to one Tate and his mother rejected in 2001, before he went to trial.

    Jim Lewis, Tate's attorney, did not immediately return a call for comment.

    Tate beat 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick to death when he was 12, claiming he accidentally killed her while imitating pro wrestling moves he had seen on television.

    He was tried as an adult, convicted of first-degree murder and received an automatic life-without-parole sentence in a case that led to international criticism of Florida's tough handling of juveniles who kill.

    The plea bargain would let Tate, now 16, plead guilty to second-degree murder and receive a sentence of three years in prison, of which he has already served 33 months, Broward State Attorney Michael J. Satz said in a statement.

    That would be followed by a year under house arrest and 10 years of probation. Tate would also have to undergo psychological treatment.

    Two weeks ago, an appeals court threw out Tate's conviction, saying his mental competency should have been evaluated before the trial. The judges expressed concern about Tate's apparent immaturity and possible misunderstanding of the plea bargain.

    If he had accepted the plea bargain, he could have been out of prison 10 months ago.

    The appeals court left it to prosecutors to decide whether to retry him.

    Tate's sentence in January 2001 drew international criticism as his mother and supporters brought the case to a U.N. human rights meeting in Geneva and Pope John Paul II in Rome. Florida prosecutes more children as adults than any other state.

    Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3812595/
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    Last edited by Leader; 27 Dec 03,, 04:22.

  • #2
    I hate to go down the liberal road here, but he's just a kid. And not even a 15 or 16 year-old kid but 12. I don't think rehabilitation should be the first objective for adults, but in this case I think it say more about society then it does about the kid if he can't be rehabilitated. BTW, this kids parents most of fucked him up bad. They should be charged with something. Who raise a 12-year-old that murders other kids?

    Comment


    • #3
      I don't think life is the right choice but this kid really beat her to death, this wasn't an accident. I'm a Floridian so I'm sure I heard more about this at the time. Here's excerpts from another news story:
      The autopsy showed that Tiffany had suffered a crushed skull, broken ribs, more than 30 internal bruises. Her liver had been shredded and pushed through her rib cage. The case was sent to the Broward State Attorney's Office and the decision was made to charge Lionel as an adult — with first-degree murder.

      Prosecuting attorney Kenneth Padowitz said the severity of Tiffany's injuries prompted him to consider trying Lionel as an adult. "My belief was that the juvenile system in Florida at the time would give Lionel Tate an average of six to nine months in a juvenile detention facility … In my determination, after many sleepless nights thinking about this, was not an appropriate sentence."


      Wrestling Defense Backfires

      In his January 2001 trial, Lionel sat quietly in court, almost as if he didn't know what was happening, watching through the eyes of a young adolescent. He never took the witness stand. Instead, his defense team entered a video reenactment into evidence, saying that Lionel, who loved wrestling, was only imitating wrestling moves he'd seen on television. But the wrestling defense backfired.

      Padowitz said, "One of the main problems with this video reenactment that Lionel is describing on the tape how he accidentally threw Tiffany against a pole that held up the staircase and then she went into a wall was that this whole area was filled with boxes. And there was an exercise machine that was right in the spot … So, the way Lionel described this occurring could not possibly have been true."

      Jury member Stephen Dankner agrees with Padowitz' assessment of the tape. "It didn't make sense to what the physical evidence showed to what he was saying that actually happened."

      As the trial drew to a close, Padowitz was concerned that Lionel would be given a long prison sentence. So, he offered Lionel and his defense team a chance to reduce the charge to second-degree murder with a plea bargain. "I offered Lionel Tate, three years in a juvenile facility, followed by one year of house arrest and 10 years of probation with psychological counseling and therapy." Padowitz said he didn't understand why neither Tate, nor his attorneys, nor his mother accepted the deal.

      On Jan. 25, 2001, the jury unanimously convicted Tate of first-degree murder. At Tate's sentencing hearing, just days after his 14th birthday, the judge stunned the court when he ordered Lionel to serve the rest of his life in prison, without chance of parole. It was a mandatory sentence in the state of Florida. As Lionel was led out of court in shackles, he broke down and cried.
      http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/...ate030307.html
      No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
      I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
      even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
      He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

      Comment


      • #4
        One has to wonder how this kid got this way. You'd think some where along the line someone would have taught the kid a little self restraint, or say, not to hit a girl. Where were this kids parents while he was killing this girl? I don't think 3 to nine mouths is the right solution either. The kid should probably be locked up until he is eighteen. Maybe not in a jail cell the whole time but in some kind of program that can fix whatever is wrong with him.

        Comment


        • #5
          First off i know nothing about the details of this, but from that description of the injuries it doesn't sound like a "throw gone wrong".

          Having said that I am surprised that a decision can be made to try him as an adult. He is either an adult or a childand at 12 clearly a child.

          I am with Leader, someone who is 12 shouldn't lose the right to the rest of their lives unless it is clear that this child cannot be re-habilitated.

          Therefore the plea bargain sounds the better deal. I am surprised as a climb down from the 1st degree murder, why nont just charge him appropriately with the sentence they wanted?
          at

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Trooth
            First off i know nothing about the details of this, but from that description of the injuries it doesn't sound like a "throw gone wrong".

            Having said that I am surprised that a decision can be made to try him as an adult. He is either an adult or a childand at 12 clearly a child.

            I am with Leader, someone who is 12 shouldn't lose the right to the rest of their lives unless it is clear that this child cannot be re-habilitated.

            Therefore the plea bargain sounds the better deal. I am surprised as a climb down from the 1st degree murder, why nont just charge him appropriately with the sentence they wanted?
            The problem is that there needs to be a distinction in the law between this kid who clearly got fucked up at some point in his life and the sixteen-year-old that kills two people while robbing a liquor store. The sixteen-year-old needs to go to jail forever. The twelve-year-old needs some help.

            Comment


            • #7
              Lawyer: Lionel Tate 'Inclined' to Accept Plea Deal

              Lawyer: Lionel Tate 'Inclined' to Accept Plea Deal

              WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A teenager whose life sentence for murdering a 6-year-old playmate was recently overturned "is inclined" to accept a plea deal that would release him from a juvenile detention center early next year, a lawyer advising the teen and his mother said Monday.

              "The plea is not being rejected," attorney Henry Hunter said. He said attorneys were still working out two procedural matters and declined to speculate when Lionel Tate (search) might accept the offer.

              Tate, 16, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, but a state appellate court threw out the conviction and sentence earlier this month, saying his mental competency should have been tested before trial.

              The plea bargain offered Friday would let Tate plead guilty to second-degree murder and receive a sentence of three years in prison, of which he has already served 33 months. He would serve three more months in prison, followed by a year of house arrest and 10 years probation.

              Tate, who was 12 at the time of the girl's death in July 1999, remains in a juvenile detention center.

              Hunter said Tate's mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, would prefer that her son be allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of second-degree murder. Still, he said, both Tate and his mother were happy about the offer.

              "She has some apprehension but she misses her baby," Hunter said. "We're excited for Lionel, one way or another."

              Although the state attorney general's office says it supports the efforts to resolve the case, the office said it would ask the appellate court on Monday to reconsider its ruling in case Tate rejects the plea offer. Monday is the deadline to appeal.

              Earlier Monday, Richard Rosenbaum, Tate's appellate attorney, said "you would have to be a fool" to pass up the plea bargain.

              Rosenbaum said on NBC's "Today" show that Tate "is willing to take responsibility for being involved in this incident," but he declined to say whether his client would accept the plea offer.

              Rosenbaum insisted Monday that Tiffany Eunick's (search) death was an accident, although he has previously dismissed claims at Tate's trial that the boy accidentally killed the girl while imitating professional wrestling moves he had seen on television.

              In March, Tate changed his story and said he accidentally killed Tiffany when he jumped on top of her as she lay at the bottom of a staircase while his mother was baby sitting the girl at her apartment. Tate weighed 160 pounds; Tiffany weighed about 50.

              Experts testified at Tate's trial that Tiffany died of a fractured skull and lacerated liver, injuries consistent with a beating.

              http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106871,00.html

              Comment


              • #8
                In March, Tate changed his story and said he accidentally killed Tiffany when he jumped on top of her as she lay at the bottom of a staircase while his mother was baby sitting the girl at her apartment. Tate weighed 160 pounds; Tiffany weighed about 50.
                Oh quick get this ladies name I'm sure she's a fine babysitter..... :ar15
                Your look more lost than a bastard child on fathers day.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Stinger
                  Oh quick get this ladies name I'm sure she's a fine babysitter..... :ar15
                  Why wasn't the mother charged murder or at least manslaughter? She was clearly criminally negligent here. .

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    this "child" is a murderous, homicidal criminal... it should have been executed at the very least, probably even tortured to death. i know a lot of 12 year olds, they are already capable of empathizing with others, and telling right from wrong. this filthy creature should definitely be held responsible for its actions.

                    how can you suggest rehab? for gods sake this sadistic animal freak tortured a child to death!

                    i like how the idiot liberals are trying to downplay it as an accident when the forensics clearly show that it was a slower more torturous process.
                    Brahma Sarvam Jagan Mithya
                    Jivo Brahmaiva Na Aparah

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      While I don't agree with Roshan's ideas of punishment, I do agree with his idea that a 12 year old should know the difference between right and wrong...one problem with this: Tate wasn't 12 when he committed the crime...he was 8, IIRC. An 8 year old is a completely different story.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        "Tate, who was 12 at the time of the girl's death in July 1999"


                        I'll agree with roshan before I agree with 3 years. Again, this was no accident, he beat a little 6 year old girl to death.
                        No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                        I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                        even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                        He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          He killed a little girl.

                          He deserves to die himself.

                          I don't care how fucked up his home life was, beating a little girl to death is OBVIOUSLY as wrongful an act as one can possibly commit.

                          Life in prison is too good for him.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by roshan
                            this "child" is a murderous, homicidal criminal... it should have been executed at the very least, probably even tortured to death.
                            Aye, cos that is completely different to what Tate did?
                            at

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              "Aye, cos that is completely different to what Tate did?"

                              No, it would be quite akin to what Tate did...hence the idea has merit.

                              Comment

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