Pardon my French, but fucking duh, dude.

Everybody has motives for what they do, even if you're ridiculously fucked up and your motive makes no sense. It's completely beside the point that he had a motive, he needs to be punished. (and separated from society-at-large until he can moderate his responses)

I agree that with him being in prison, there should be some form of rehabilitation, however that doesn't include an early release. He should be tried as an adult and remain in prison for the amount of time sentenced. I don't consider that revenge when he tried to kill the little girl to shut her up, not to mention what he did to her.

Although my idea of justice when it's related to my own backyard is not the same believed by others, I do follow the law accordingly, regardless of how unbalanced it seems to be at times.

No one has ever even tested or counciled him yet, so it's hard to say what's really going on or went on in his mind long before the attack. Haven't any of you stopped to realise or even think that this boy might be suffering from some sort of mental or bipolar disorder? Or that he, at one time, might have been traumatized himself and just happened to lash out on an innocent victim? That the least little thing causes him to go insane?

Apparently, it seems like there's a dark past hidden there which still has yet to be found. He didn't plan this attack prematurely. It mainly happened out of rage and revenge and to try to understand his going bonkers on the girl, one has to try to look back into his past to try to get an idea on his family and their dealings with him.

Even though this attack was a violent, ugly, ferocious and voracious one, no one can actually say just what lead up to him becoming the type of person he became when the girl threw the stone at him or even BEFORE that.

It would definitely appear that he has strange and unexplained mood swings and psychological problems. Sorry, but I just don't feel that he should just be thrown in prison without the judge even arranging for him to be treated with some type of theropy, or at least be evaluated at a hospital first.

Most adult men who would do this to a woman, or some other strange and bazar thing, they automatically are sent to a hospital's psyciatric ward for at least a month or so to find out if they are competent enough to stand trial or ot find out if they are mentally disturbed or are suffering from some type of a disorder that triggers violent dangerous behavior, lash-outs and attacks. Why wasn't THIS person given that evaluation? Why is he being treated almost like he has no right to live?

His past might have been looked at, but all the proccecuters probably looked at were all the negetive things that this boy has done in his life and nothing that might have lead up to what might have caused his sporatical behavioral problems!

They more than likely thought to themselves afterwards; "Well, we got another bad kid off the streets! He'll probably rot in jail for what he did!".

The kid is of Afro-American decent. I wonder what would have happened if the child was White. Would they feel the same? No, I'm not a racist, but I thought of that as well.

If he were a year or two younger when he attacked the girl, would they still feel the same way? One has to wonder.

Well hell, here's what pisses me off. Friggen no one - not even the judge, has him sent for a psyciatric evaluation before he was ordered to do the time! They just slapped the words "dangerous violent sexual predator / child rapist / child molester" on his back and said that he's no good and are treating him like a common criminal or as thought he's a monster!!

All most of you are looking at is that he got mad, grabbed and violently mauled the girl. You're not looking at what might have caused his mind to go south in the first place. And this has to be long before the attack took place.

To try to found out about a violent & dangerous child, you sometimes have to go back into the mind of one, which his violent erattic behavior most likely began when he was younger. Any doc or mind theropy specialist would tell you this.

Like most people here, I'm short on sympathy for this person.

So he's a kid - big deal - so what!

You do the crime you do the time. If you start making excuses for one person because there were 'reasons' for his sociopathic behaviour, then you can find such reasons for every criminal's behaviour - after all, even the adult murderers and rapists were kids once, right?

If the judge has the power to put him away for 60 years for it, and you don't think that's reasonable - your beef should be with the system that gives the judge that power in my opinion.

Yeah, and the system doesn't work for everyone, now does it?

I've even heard about and seen grown men and woman get away with similar crimes, getting off on some ridiculous technicality. They do very little time if any at all!

What about all the sex-crazed stalkers who would still stalk, attack and beat their lovers to a pulp or kill them after being given a restraining order to stay away?

Things didn't have to get this far with the boy if only he was stopped in time and treated psycologically. Long before that day. And there is absolutgely no way that you can tell me you don't agree with this one. Don't try to hide it.

And that is why I say that the system didn't work for him. And the parents didn't seem to want to budge in getting any help for him.

Absolutely there are reasons to complain about the system - two important areas are consistency of sentencing, and rehabilitation while incarcerated. I don't think anyone is really disputing that, though I'm sure there are people who would argue that what you are saying shows that other people get too short a sentence, not that this person got too severe a sentence.

But when there are problems with the system, they need to be addressed as just that - problems with the system, not by taking an approach of advocating that this person or that person should get a free pass (or discount so to speak).

Me? I still get the feeling you are obsessed with the innocence of kids, and it's affecting your ability to see reason here to a degree. Maybe the kid is just a sociopath to start with, and should treated as such - normally I would expect some kind of psych assessment to be done in such a case and taken into account in sentencing. That's the usual procedure. Perhaps it's one of those cases where the USA has vastly different laws from state to state, which is something that will frequently result in cases of apparent injustice.

The fact that he himself pled guilty to the chargres, I don't think he knew what to say. One would expect him to deny the charges. That's usually the normal thing a defendant would do.

Being that this boy still has his whole life ahead of him, yes, of course I'm going to defend him. I don't like what he did, no, but I think that he suffers from some type of disorder.

I've worked with many children, including teenagers, and I think I know a little bit about what goes on in their minds. Some of them were going to do some pretty serious and dangerously violent crimes, or in their cases, mistimeanors. After talking to me and getting some advice from me, they felt and thought better of themselves and didn't think about what they planned to do at all. They thanked me very wholeheartedly.

By law, what the boy did was totally evil, violent and unacceptable, but I can feel his pain and hurt. He seemingly was rejected at home and didn't get the attention and help that he should have gotten back then.

Now that he committed this horrible crime, the system has made it widely known that he's been tagged as a young madman, a very dangerous individual and a violent sexual predator / rapist and is a child molester. It should not have gotten this far. There has to be a reason why young boys his age and even younger end up committing such evil violent crimes. One answer could be that they are neglected at home, and any strange behavior that they might have falls on deaf ears.

The fact that he's had problems in the past was already a gray area - a sign that he would one day erupt and go completely berserk and seriously maim someone. Guess that day had come on November 11, 2005.

And thank our lucky stars the law doesn't have feelings.

Because they're not human.

If a 5-year-old boy gets banned from school for a while for kissing a girl, they do just about anything
else.

Have you stopped to consider I never said I thought his sentence was just?

Your point is gotten and has been because it is blindingly obvious. Poor screwed-up child with probably a bad domestic situation, hate the sin, not the sinner. Old hat stuff.

In the meantime between his commission of this heinous crime and his improvement, let's keep him out of society at large is what I'm saying.

I never accused you of that, I don't think.

He'll get some help while there, or one way or another, I'm pretty sure. It's just a matter of time.

I just hope that he doesn't attack anyone in there for sex or anything else! The guards there might tazer him!

Oh. I found and read this before, that his mom, brother, an uncle and a minister all pleaded with the judge, asking him for some leniency for Sherman. He got none.

The judge DID however, lift some of the charges such as the one where the boy tried to offer the 11-year-old money for sex and started attacking her brother when he stopped it.

He was a vicious bully, terrorizing and threatening the neighborhood with bodily harm, had his family and all frightened of him. He practically ruled his area. I wonder if he ever would have tried to attack and molest someone his own size or larger.

What would he have done then? He's a sex-crazed maniac who doesn't care how his sexual lust is satisfied as long as he gets his way for sex. Yeah, he probably would have gone on to be a wildman, terrorizing young girls and maybe little boys too for sex. His mind definitely went sour!! He's not all there upstairs.

But there's always hope that he can become a changed person while there from Frankenstien back to normal. The truth will also come out that he has some type of mental disorder as well, or is autistic.

Yep - and it just might do him some good. It wouldn't cure any problems he has (obviously), but might help teach him that there are consequences to your actions.

In all probability he will learn from other inmates stronger than him that it isn't nice being someone else's target of abuse.

Yeah, He bullied, terrorized, brutalized and sexually abused that girl. Now let's see how he fairs against people there.

I don't think he'll try it, seeing that they are bigger than him. He's used to man-handling little boys & girls.

Young boys won't attack or attempt to attack an adult because they know that they don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of taking an adult down for raping and having their sexual ways with one. So they go lusting after kids around their own age or younger. Like the kid did with me in camp.

Oh. He was said to have attacked and knocked down defensless old ladies for their pocketbooks and groceries. His dad was bo better - going in and out of jail for illeagel drug use.

I just wished that the boy could have been saved, mentored and rescued from the mean streets of his city. He'll be 64 or so when he gets out, if he doesn't get out by some miracle before then!!

Ras..
Your such a stinker! ..where is the people icon with a face using a hand swapping over the top? they need to add that one.

Sherri

What's funny is the way he not only chomped down on it hook, line, sinker, and fishing pole - he jumped in the boat and started filleting himself.

What's less funny is that you enjoy doing that to people.

AMEN!!! Say it again.

Truth be told, the boy is quite possibly very sick and psyhologically or mentally disturbed, I think.

Otherwise, why would he do that to the girl? He turned into a sex-crazed Frankensien, yes, but I don't think he did it just to be doing it. There is more to this than meets the eye.

Why do sociopaths exist? You are still assuming that poor little Sherman was completely innocent in this because he is a kid. I think to be realistic, you have to acknowledge that there is either:
A.) a possibility he is just like other, older murderers - 'just plain evil' to start with if you want to put it that way; or
B.) a possibility that ALL murderers, rapists, etc are just victims when it comes down to it.

In either case, I see little to suggest he should be treated differently to others because of his age.

1. When, just when, did I ever say Sherman was innocent for what he did to the girl?

2. When did I ever say that he was a victim for sexually assaulting the girl?

3. Anyone who is as young as he is and does something like that, it IS still wrong. When did I ever say that it was right?

4. When did I ever say that he was innocent at all for raping or attempting to rape the girl?

5. I've clearly stated, and will CONTINUE to say that he probably has serious issues and that he may be seriously mentally disturbed, and it could possibly come out that you may end up eating your words. Something just isn't right in his mind. He WILL have to be evaluated sooner or later. He might be autistic. Autism definitely makes a child go berserk at times and do bazar and strange things.

5. And if I were there or around there while that tragic horror was unfolding, I'd stop him from doing it and call the cops myself. No, I wouldn't hit him at all, but I'd pull him off and hold him away from her until he calmed down and the girl was freed. The girl would have been saved from being mauled to the point where she was about to die.