Teen Gets Decades In Prison For Murder Of Someone Killed By A Cop

[Proud liberal 80]

Guess he wasn’t able to claim affluenza.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5ac8df6de4b09d0a11943ba4

He should definitely be in jail, but murder? Wow

[marble falls]

1. It may be legal, but it is certainly unfair. I understand that the kid never even fired a weapon.

[JCanete]

2. 15 years old...fuck that judge. nt

[RandomAccess]

3. This kind of thing makes a complete mockery out of our entire

judicial system. It's so far beyond a disgrace and a travesty that I don't have words for it.

[NightWatcher]

4. That's how the Felony Murder Doctrine works.

once you initiate the felony, you're responsible for whatever happens as a result of the action you started.

[OneBro]

10. We understand how it works. We just think it's immoral.

The immorality is compounded by the offensive notion of any 15 year old being "charged as an adult." He was a stupid kid who made a stupid decision and he SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, but this decision is a prime example of how our legal has little to do with justice and more to do with politics and race. Don't even get me started about Trump or the drunk driving white teen who walked away from a manslaughter charge because he "suffered" from affluency.

[Lee-Lee]

5. Thats how Felony Murder works

If you are a participant in a felony and someone ends up dead as a result of that felony, even if you didn’t actually kill them, you are still responsible for the deaths

If you and 3 buddies decide to rob a bank and your friend kills a teller, you also are responsible for the death as a participant in the crime that lead to the death.

This also came into play in the case last year where a homeowner killed 3 home invaders. The getaway driver who was the ringleader was charged for the 3 deaths.

[Proud liberal 80]

8. Yeah

I knew that is the case with your bank teller example, but didn’t know it was with the other, too.

[msongs]

16. so how come this doctrine does not ever apply to cops when one of their group murders

somebody?

[Ms. Toad]

18. It does, if it is determined that the act was murder. n/t

[Lee-Lee]

19. It does if they are committing a crime together

If a group of cops sets it and says “let’s go shake down these thugs for cash” and during the process of that crime someone dies, it can and should apply.

The element needed is that they were engaged in a felony, other than just someone wrongfully shooting somebody, that resulted in the death.

[sarah FAILIN]

6. Told my coworker this story yesterday

Did not realize he was 15 when it happened. Where was his youthful offender status?

We live here so it is our back yard, but this law is so wrong. One person has no control over what another person does and shouldn't be punished for what another chooses to do in a flash. He wasn't even old enough to drive.

This kid made a bad situation worse by not being respectful or apologizing to the judge which is probably why he got the 65 years instead of 28 like the other kid. He said several times that he didn't have time for this and the judge heard it. The judge told him he had plenty of time for this... I know it was the kid in him talking, but it was a bad time for it.

He probably will not do anywhere near that time though, even if it isn't appealed. The prisons here are so overcrowded that people are being turned loose in 6 months that were sentenced to 20 years according to the complaints of our local judges.

[OneBro]

13. A young, brash teen reacting to a 65 year sentence by a judge who lacks any basic sense of morality.

The kid's reaction suggests sudden hysteria.

[sarah FAILIN]

14. The way I understood it

The sassy attitude came before the sentencing. He refused to stand when the judge entered and the judge heard him talking smack beforehand. Maybe that is basis for an appeal because the judge was pretty mad at him personally for not respecting him. The kid would have gotten a 25 year sentence if he had taken the deal they offered. I do think the laughing was more of a hysterical reaction of a child, but the adults couldn't see that.

Reynolds overheard Smith say, "I don’t have time for this" while waiting to be called and, and the judge confronted him about his comments.

“You got plenty of time for this,” Reynolds explained to Smith before handing down the sentence. “When I called the case earlier you said you ain’t got time for this, so I didn’t know if you had time for this now?”

Smith laughed and lowered his head, stating he didn’t know the judge heard him.

Reynolds paused and asked Smith, "You just don’t get it do you?"

"He hasn't said I'm sorry yet,” the judge went on. “He hasn't acknowledged to this court that he shouldn't have done, shouldn't have come around, in fact, his attitude toward this court and life, in general, has been sour.”

Smith’s grandfather made an impassioned plea for his grandson’s freedom, asking the judge to show mercy.

"Give him a chance to tell you he’s sorry," the grandfather pleaded with Reynolds.

“He’s had every opportunity,” the judge responded. "I’ve asked two or three times today.”

“Are you sorry?” the grandfather asked Smith then responded he was sorry for his actions and sorry for his "homeboy", referencing A’Donte Washington.

Chief District Attorney C.J. Robinson noted Smith’s attitude in court.

"After the jury verdict, he was laughing. Today in court he was laughing," Robinson said. “I have yet to understand what was so funny.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/07/ala-teen-turns-down-25-year-plea-deal-gets-sentenced-to-65-years-instead-and-laughs.html

[Lee-Lee]

7. Looks like he was offered a plea deal of 25 years and turned it down

Took his chances in court and ended up with 65 years instead of the 25 he was offered.

And since his sentences were 10 for theft, 10 for theft, 15 for burglary and 30 for murder he literally turns down a plea deal that would have been a better deal than had they only found him guilty on the burglary and theft charges.

[OneBro]

11. Hindsight is often 20/20.

[Angry Dragon]

9. Don't know what to say

[aikoaiko]

12. When you're guilty, take the deal.

Still, 65 years seems too much for this case.

[dsc]

15. I wonder why we can't expand the felony murder statute

For example, bank illegally repos your car, you lose your job, become homeless, kill yourself blaming bank. CEO should go up for murder. Or company pumps illegal chemicals into your ground water, you get cancer and die. CEO goes up for murder.

[Ms. Toad]

17. Not that long ago, he could have been given the death penalty for it.

At least we've progressed a smidgen.

[boston bean]

20. If it was a justified killing how can anyone be charged with murder?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

22. This makes the most sense. It was a "righteous shooting".

So the kid participated in some lesser crime, but there was no murder.

[Ms. Toad]

23. The justification is a personal defense for the police

But the need to shoot on self defense was created by the commission of the felony. Felony murder is based on a theory of proximate causation. When you choose to commit a violent felony, you are liable for all of the foreseeable consequences of that act, including that your acts may require the intervention of the police, who may need to shoot someone.

[Johnny2X2X]

21. 15 years old!

This is not justice! This kid made a terrible mistake, but in a just system there is no way he should get life in prison. How any prosecutor and judge could do this to a 15 year old kid is disgusting. And there is zero chance in Alabama that f this kid was white he wouldn’t be looking at juvenile detention for a few years at most.

A valuable life was lost that day, and the judge responded by taking away another child’s life. This is not what civilized societies do.