Justice for black kid ?

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: CT8

He was given the shaft I hope he gets some serious money to compensate him for the theft of his live and the government people and the attorney get their just due.

Unless everyone involved in perpetuating this travesty ends their lives nailed to crosses and screaming, they got off easy.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: BHopkins

Wait a minute. Nowhere in the articles quoted above does it say that this man was innocent. It only said that the credibility of the detective was in question. While I totally understand that with the dirty tricks that many law enforcement officers do during interrogation, it is not unusual to get false confessions, the young man did confess. There is no evidence stated in the article that proves innocence. All we have is thrown out evidence. I'm also confused as to what race has to do with this account. Regardless of race, justice should always be dealt out. I've got a real problem with law enforcement officers that get so convinced that they "have their man", that they justify. The penalty for cops using such interrogation tactics should be severe. Unfortunately, punishment is almost unheard of for such tactics.

Under the law a person is innocent until proven guilty. The kid was forced to confess by the lying cop and his incompetence lawyer. There wasn't any evidence that this kid committed the crime. There was another person confessed of killing those 4 persons. I think it should be illegal to interrogate under age suspect without his/her lawyer presented. Asking single question is enough to let him/her go free.

 

[dishdude]

It's not just black kids, this cop tasers a white kid and while he's unconscious throws him 4 feet onto the concrete. Kid suffered severe brain damage. Everyday another story like this comes out.

Quote:

As part of his guilty plea, Runnels admitted that, while he was an officer of the Independence Police Department, he violated Masters' constitutional rights by deliberately dropping Masters face-first onto the ground while Masters was restrained and not posing a threat to Runnels or others. During a sentencing hearing, the government showed dash camera video with Runnels handcuffing the former Truman High School senior after the Taser deployment, then picking him up. The video and other evidence presented at the sentencing demonstrates that Runnels then deliberately dropped the handcuffed victim face-first onto the pavement. Though Masters suffered cardiac arrest and facial injuries, he survived, due to timely treatment by medical personnel at the scene and at the hospital. The Huffington Post reports the incident also left Masters with brain damage.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-shows-cop-manhandling-tasering-teen-at-traffic-stop/

 

[Oro_O]

Originally Posted By: dishdude

It's not just black kids, this cop tasers a white kid and while he's unconscious throws him 4 feet onto the concrete. Kid suffered severe brain damage.

I read a very good article about this incident just two days ago. Totally shocking. Here's the article; very well written (longer, more detailed): https://theintercept.com/2016/06/07/tase...me-of-recovery/

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: dparm

At the risk of coming off like a [censored], why is this person's race relevant to the story? (hint: it isn't)

Agreed. I'd also agree that the public defender was probably overworked and underpaid, and that's common all over the world. In this province, for instance, if you qualify for Legal Aid (our public defender), unless it's pretty darned obvious that you're not guilty and have the evidence to demonstrate that at hand and spoon feed it to your Legal Aid defender, that defender is going to insist on trying to plead you down and will not go to defend you at trial for a not guilty plea. Everyone has the right to due process and to be convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. However, if even 5% of people walking through Legal Aid's doors insisted upon a not guilty plea and Legal Aid agreed to represent them through a trial, the Legal Aid system would collapse from overwork within two weeks. It's unfortunate and unfair, and I don't know the answer.

 

[javacontour]

I'm not making any judgment about the kid or his guilt or innocence. What I'm saying is that if a minor confesses, there better be some air tight safeguards in place to make sure it's a valid confession and all parties have good reason to believe the kid is telling the truth AND was not coerced. As far as I know, the kid could have done it. (Or not, since another serial killer seems to be the likely culprit here.) My point was not about THIS kid, it was about the way we as a society should handle the confession of a minor.

Originally Posted By: bubbatime

Originally Posted By: javacontour

If we were talking about an adult, I'd buy it. The kid was 14. I have a child only a few years older than 14 now. She would have been scared out of her wits if she was being accused of a homicide.

The AVERAGE 14 year old, sure. Don't lump all 14 year olds into the same category. The most dangerous people in almost any large community in America are 13-16 year old ghetto males. They grew up in bad/abusive homes, were raised on the streets, and have terrible impulse control. They do what they want, when they want, with no consequences. The juvenile justice system at most lets them out in 21 days, unless they kill someone. Yes that's right, they can rob someone, beat up someone, terrorize their neighborhood and the most the juvenile justice system can give them is 21 days in juvenile hall. They get out and go back to their ways again and again, until they turn 18 and are FINALLY sent off to big boy prison where they belong. For one year I supervised 12-17 year old males in a prison environment, so I am intimately familiar with them. I would never do that again. Not for 100K dollars, not for a million dollars. The kids are just flat out DANGEROUS.

 

[hatt]

What does being a minor have to do with anything. A coerced confession is no confession at all.

 

[Alfred_B]

Originally Posted By: hatt

What does being a minor have to do with anything. A coerced confession is no confession at all.

this ^

 

[javacontour]

True, yet there still needs to be more protections for a minor. Someone earlier in the thread asked why the kid confessed if he didn't do it. Well it COULD be that he's a kid and doesn't fully understand what he's doing. I can call for greater protections of a minor and still be against ALL coerced confessions. The two are not mutually exclusive positions.

Originally Posted By: hatt

What does being a minor have to do with anything. A coerced confession is no confession at all.

 

[Alfred_B]

put a 14 year old kid in front of an intimidating cop and within 30 minutes they will sign everything you put in front of them.

 

[NHHEMI]

A 14 years should never be interrogated without a lawyer or parent present. That jumps out at me right off. This does not mean the guy is innocent just that some fishy stuff went on with the officer. He definitely deserves a new trial however. Evidence found related to any coercion should be excluded from the new trial. Evidence found that was or could have been found without it should be allowed in. Assess the situation and see if there is enough to go to trial again or not? If there is do so, if not release him. I don't see how adding "black kid" to the thread title is relevant. Race has nothing to do with what happened.

 

[NHHEMI]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR

Originally Posted By: dparm

At the risk of coming off like a [censored], why is this person's race relevant to the story? (hint: it isn't) I agree that it is a tragedy and should never have happened.

Most innocent people had been in jail for some times and found not guilty the last several were mostly black male. Looks to me like "You're black therefore you're guilty of some crimes"

I hear Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are hiring. You should check it out. If you truly think race is relevant here then maybe that is the field you should be in.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: NHHEMI

I don't see how adding "black kid" to the thread title is relevant. Race has nothing to do with what happened.

When we quit doing these kinds of things (using race in the title of this thread) maybe racism will die out a bit. But as long as folks keep drumming up stories for maximum racial impact and political points it will only inflame tensions. Folks forget the police have a better than 99% successful interaction with the citizenry.

 

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

Originally Posted By: dparm

At the risk of coming off like a [censored], why is this person's race relevant to the story? (hint: it isn't) I agree that it is a tragedy and should never have happened.

Exactly. Well said.

Originally Posted By: SteveSRt8

When we quit doing these kinds of things (using race in the title of this thread) maybe racism will die out a bit. But as long as folks keep drumming up stories for maximum racial impact and political points it will only inflame tensions. Folks forget the police have a better than 99% successful interaction with the citizenry.

Maybe people who play the race card think they can get an extra measure of sympathy and special treatment. And it's all about divide and conquer; political power and control.

 

[Win]

Quote:

Agreed. I'd also agree that the public defender was probably overworked and underpaid, and that's common all over the world.

Not an excuse for professional negligence in any profession that I'm aware of.

Quote:

A 14 years should never be interrogated without a lawyer or parent present. That jumps out at me right off.

That's the law in my state and probably most states with a modern criminal / juvenile code.

Quote:

What I'm saying is that if a minor confesses, there better be some air tight safeguards in place to make sure it's a valid confession

Apparently this minor was charged as an adult, which by itself is unusual for a fourteen year old. Regardless, in my state, every defendant, regardless of age, when making a guilty plea, has to state on the record what he/she did that constitutes the offense to which he/she is pleading. No factual basis, no acceptance of the guilty plea.

Quote:

There was another person confessed of killing those 4 persons.

Not unheard of - while not common, criminals already in big trouble do confess for other criminals. Without knowing more, another confession might not be very persuasive. People, including adults, even innocent ones, do make false confessions. It sounds crazy, but it does happen.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

Originally Posted By: dparm

At the risk of coming off like a [censored], why is this person's race relevant to the story? (hint: it isn't) I agree that it is a tragedy and should never have happened.

Exactly. Well said.

Originally Posted By: SteveSRt8

When we quit doing these kinds of things (using race in the title of this thread) maybe racism will die out a bit. But as long as folks keep drumming up stories for maximum racial impact and political points it will only inflame tensions. Folks forget the police have a better than 99% successful interaction with the citizenry.

Originally Posted By: MolaKule

Maybe people who play the race card think they can get an extra measure of sympathy and special treatment. And it's all about divide and conquer; political power and control.

Remember Ferguson, Missouri ?

Quote:

As black families moved into Ferguson, the whites fled. In 1980, the town was 85 percent white and 14 percent black; by 2010, it was 29 percent white and 69 percent black. The disparity is most evident in the Ferguson Police Department, of which only three of 53 officers are black. The largely white force stops black residents far out of proportion to their population, according to statistics kept by the state attorney general. Blacks account for 86 percent of the traffic stops in the city, and 93 percent of the arrests after those stops. Similar problems exist around St. Louis County, where earlier this year the state chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging widespread racial profiling by police departments.

 

[Alfred_B]

Originally Posted By: NHHEMI

I don't see how adding "black kid" to the thread title is relevant. Race has nothing to do with what happened.

White kids are treated differently. A white guy gets 3 months for rape, for example. A black kid gets killed for owning a BB gun. vastly different standards.

 

[urrlord]

The race is irrelevant.' The kid should not have been talked to without a parent or guardian.Who could then invoke the right to a lawyer.Something fishy there. I am a strong tough on crime type .After dealing with criminals 30 plus years .But the law has to behave within it's guidelines and act correctly.

 

[Alfred_B]

Race SHOULD be irrelevant. But it's one of the stronger factors in our "justice" delivery system, unfortunately. Another strong factor is wealth.

 

[stockrex]

The MO kid got justice cuz his dad is a police officer himself, if he was not then the criminal wearing a uniform and carrying a badge would have walked away without a conviction.