Perhaps it has nothing to do with him as being a totally mentally disturbed person. Perhaps he is just a sociopath in the making and nothing his parents, grandparents, relatives, school, church and/or community do will change that.

No matter how much 'rehabilitation' he receives, it will probably not make a difference, so why waste my hard earned tax dollars on someone who is going to play the game of 'i'm healed', get out and then go hurt some other defenseless person, thanks, but no thanks.

He committed a crime, knew it was wrong to the point that he tried to silence her, and we as a society are suppose to view him as a child because of his age, well perhaps in another lifetime, but sure as hell hopefully not during mine. If his age were not listed with the crime he committed, would your views still remain the same?

Probably. Do not be so quick to say that you wouldn't put your hard-earned tax dollars into Sherman being let go snd possibly re-offend by terrorizing and raping someone again. Your hard-earned tax dollars are still paying for him being in prison! Where do you think the dough comes from to house feed and clothe him as well as provide a program for him possibly being rehabbed, and a job for him to earn some money while he's staying there? Bingo, out of our own pockets!

Also, your hard-earned tax dollars are hard at work, paying for Edward O'Brian, Eric Smith, Nathaniel Abraham, Lionel Tate, Nathaniel Brazill and Josh Pillman. These were all cute sweet adorable innocent looking little boys (except for O'Brian who was 15 when he murdered his best friend's mom) who were also VERY DEADLY! They all mercilessly, rutlessly and cold-heartedly MURDERED innocent people during their young childhood.


So, your hard-earned tax dollars are STILL paying for all these boys to be fed, clothed, rehabbed and a roof kept over their heads as well as money in their pockets.

He (Sherman) is still human, even though what he did was inhumane. He still should be helped even if it DOES mean that he can't get out for a while.

The help that he should be or might get, he should have gotten when his parents and his school first noticed that something has started to go terribly sour and awry with him.

This is part of the reason why I say that the boy's parents, his school and the system waited much too long before looking into trying to get some help for him. It was all too much, too little and too late before he erupted like a volcano and an innocent little girl was kidnapped, beaten, sexually assaulted and maimed to the point where she almost died.

Too much time was wasted, too little was done, if anything at all, and it became to late to stop him from violently attacking someone. Nothing was done to stop him earlier from carrying out this diabolical attack on the girl. Ziltch, zero, zippo, nata. Not one thin dime!

You misunderstood me I think. In saying that you make him out to be innocent and a victim, I was referring to the fact that you continue to make excuses for him ... he only did it because of what was done to him - therefore, ULTIMATELY, he is the victim.

I'm the first to agree that his environment was probably a major factor in forming him into the psycho he has become. But as I understand it, the law sees it this way: if you know something is wrong and you still do it, that shows culpability, so you should be punished. Whether his parents should also be punished is another, possibly valid, argument. And as I've said from the outset in this thread, the lack of rehabilitation in the prison system is without doubt a major concern - but it doesn't detract from his culpability. One more time, in summary, yes the system is a mess and needs fixing, but no, his age should not be a factor (at all) in determining his punishment - unless he is so young that he did not understand what he did was wrong (which certainly is not the case here).

What excuses am I supposedly making for him, other than the possibility that he might be suffering from some kind of mental inbalance? I never said that. He might have been trumatized, yes. but I've also said that he has no right to abuse the girl.

I NEVER once condoned what he did to the girl. I never once said that it was right at all. You're putting words in my mouth.

He's a victim, not for assaulting the girl, but of whatever might have happened to him several years back. Still, that does not justify his assault on the girl, no. But there is something that just isn't right with him upstairs. His elevator doesn't reach the top floor, if you know what I mean. It just doesn't go up.

I'm saying that whatever he might be suffering from goes way back before the attack. I never said that he was justified for DOING the attack.

The bottom line is, whatever was bothering him way back when things first began to surface, he should have been taken to see a specialist.

The attack on the girl more than likely would not have happened to this day, and he wouldn't be where he is now, behind bars.

I didn't suggest you "condoned" his actions. From the start you have focused on your view that he probably only did it because his life has been so screwed up etc. And you've made it clear you think he should not be imprisoned for this crime because of that issue. To quote you:

That seems like making excuses to me.

Its sad for the girl. But even more sad for the sentence for the boy. It just shows that the judge is just as out of touch as the boy was. Surely it would have been better to introduce the boy to a learning program to show him a better way of coming to terms with people chucking a rock at you... like learning temper management and doing good in the community for old and young folks - that way , he would have learned that there are more things beneath heaven and Earth than doing what he did to a six year old girl!


I guess the boy won't learn anything new being in prison for sixty years except to deepen his loathing of girls and the state system!

Terabyte

Yes Kevmartin, I said THAT.

His deffense attourney should have tried even harder to get him off on a plea of insanity.

That way, the boy would have been off the streets, yes, but he would have been getting help by being institutionalized, however long it would have taken to treat him with therapy and counciling, as well as some mentoring and psycological help.

It would have been much better than him having to spend the next 60 years behind bars! And I STILL maintain that he shouldn't spend that amount of time in jail. I still believe that there is some kind of mental problem there that over the years as turned him into a raging lunatic - not just the attack itself, but things in the past that lead up to it.

Someone or something has done something terribly bad to this boy to make him the type of person that he is today. I just don't buy the so-called theory that he just picks that one particular day to explode, go insane right before attacking the little girl and then carry out the crime. Something is amiss there.

I originally lived in Liverpool England. There were two 11 year-old boys there who systematically tortured and killed a two year old boy with the surname Bulger, in the 1990's on a Railway Siding in Walton, Liverpool, England. The boys both got eight years in a youth Custodial Institution (similar to the Arkansas 'Juve' for boys in the USA), after they were let out, the two boys got new identities and given 'safe' houses to live in...


I can't say this was right either, but we have to look after our children and watch their back when they are preoccupied elsewhere. We are the grown-Ups who know what's wrong with the world. And prevention is better than trying to cure something that is at best, too late!

A saddened terabyte

Exactly!!

That is why I say that this boy's parent should have gotten off of their rusty-dusties and tried to get some help for this boy when they first noticed that something might have been wrong with him.

He quite possibly would not have attacked, terrorized, sodomized and raped the girl if he was treated long time ago!!

he will learn how to make a knife and the best way to kill someone in jail

He won't be able to do that if he doesn't have access to any of that stuff.

I think he's monitored and checked daily to make sure that he has no contraband on him.

You see, that's the diffewrence between ASSUMING and KNOWING. You assumed that it isn't there because obviously, you didn't bother to look hard enough. I, on the other hand, KNOW that it's there because that is where I first saw it.

I'm not blaming the girl at all! She almost died because of Sherman. You're sounding like some kind of racist (Quote "The link in the post went to some black site and I found no story, so I'm going by what what is being said in this thread." (End quote). Obviously, it's a website about black people. Obviously, Sherman is black! Hello!

You've obviously just didn't even try to look hard enough. It IS there! And you missed where I said the story would be. Go back and read the post again, please. And don't assume things. If you'd bothered to look hard enough, then you'd have found it!

And BTW, two things. It is STILL there. I just looked. Try it agan. And the girl who Sherman kidnapped, sexually assaulted and mauled is also Afro-American.

Like I said before, The Penitentiary System will have to learn by its mistakes - just as the inmates of its prisons have to - or be fried if they don't and keep on killing!


I really wish there was an easier way for kids Stateside. They go into the prison system earlier than British kids do and if they go into the Juvenile system, there's a good chance (if they aren't tough enough), to be killed by the warped individuals inside who don't see any difference in killing inside of a juvenile prison to doing it outside of a juvenile prison!


Its very sad, but I knew someone who entered the Juvenile Prison System in Arkansas for the first time. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to make it back to the outside again.

terabyte

Four convicted killers, Eric Smith, 13 at the time, Nathaniel Abraham, 11 at the time, Lional Tate, 12 at the time and Nathaniel Brazill, 13 at the time - all have blatently comitted serious murder crimes (since when is murder not serious?).

With the exception of Eric Smith and Nathaniel Brazill, the other two were given at least 2 chances to clean up their acts. They didn't keep their word, ended up back in front of the judge, sat there smirking and thinking to themselves that they were probably going to be let go, get off and walk again!!

But neither of them did. The judge threw them both back behind bars and is making them serve out the remainder of whatever amount of jail time they had left short of life without parole!!

All four of these murderers killed an innocent person each!! They did the crime, now they are doing the time!! No more chances for any of them.

Lionel and Nathaniel A. both burned the bridges behind them, had at least two chances apiece and abused them, yet Sherman was never even allowed the opportunity to be evaluated mentally before being convicted and sentensed!!

It is an absolute chilling shockwave to the very foundation of the country to know that little boys as young as 10 or 11 will go out and deliberately diabolically, and heartlessly plot and kill an innocent person in cold blood!!! Evil!!!

Jeeze - why don't you start a website up named saveoursherman.com or something? Hmmmm, maybe I'll start one named sociopathsshouldbeeuthanized.com!

Yes, of course I am kidding, (kind of).

You're driving me nuts!

Hmm at my age (66) I'm not supposed to have any nuts! My son thinks I've put R.I.P on any activity I have other than computers...


Teens have a perculiar way of thinking regarding 'adults' - like mine think my procreativity stops when they come along!!! D'oh!


terabyte

Yeah, they sure do!

When I watched the Court TV trials of Nataniel Abraham and Lionel Tate, they both were only 13 at the time of their trials.

They would at times cry and fall asleep at their tables. I cried with them and felt so sorry for them and pouring my heart out to them back then, hoping and praying that the judge would give them some leniency, because they were still babies at the time, not knowing that the horrible crimes they committed had devestating impacts on the victims' relatives.

They eventually DID get exonerated and I was happy for them.

But when they kept coming back to court because they kept screwing up, getting in trouble again (not hurting or killing anyone else) and violating their parole agreements they MAKE the judge and other people want to just throw up their hands and say; "I'm so done with you now. You're a monster - a hardened criminal and you just flatly refuse to change for the better!!".

I ended up being glad that the judge threw them back in jail!! Because they would just come back, sit there and smirk!!

But under those tough facades of theirs, there has to be that "good kid" in there. I still have hope for them, believe it or not!

Hopefully, when they DO get out of jail, and they WILL get out someday, they'll mend their ways and try to teach other kids NOT to go down the same road that THEY THEMSELVES have traveled, and to be good responsible teens. Time will tell.

On another tack, I noticed Kevmartin has a quote from John Lennon, I used to live in Liverpool and whilst it is a huge place to live in, John, Paul and I went to the same Art college in our teens and became good friends. Eventually, their fame came between friendships and as I was moving around like a Romany - we lost touch. What is important is the 'contact' we once had and something like that can help guys who have had a bad time whilst growing up.


I saw a film which featured the child actor Haley Joel Osmond, in the film, "Pay It Forward" which is a great way of getting people to be more caring by being caring to them - even if they are complete strangers.


I think in his own way, Daquan, may exercise a version of "Pay It Forward" himself!

Peace!

Terabyte - I love you guys!

My two oldest brothers used to get in trouble with the law when we were kids, but none of us has ever maimed or killed anyone, thank God!!

No more than confronting the person who caused trouble for us and making sure that he was roughed up enough to at least think twice before bothering us again. That was it. They were in and out of reform school a lot, but no prison time at all.

We did not carry any guns or knives either! Our plain FISTS were our main defense! Or a stick on occasion.

Today, it is much more different! You get in an arguent with a 13-year-old, and he's going to pull a gun or knife out on you and he'll want to blow your head off or slash your throat!! As Nathaniel Brazill did to his teacher in Florida.

I don't argue with them at all! They LOOK for excuses to want to harm someone!