In my first "Gimmie Five" installment, we look at the five individuals who doomed the future of all kids from 9 to 16, because of numerous quirks in the law in each state affected, overzealous prosecutors and maybe the victim's family going "age blind" when it comes to justice. I go from personal seriousness of their crimes against society.
1. Willie Bosket (1978): New York Times reporter Fox Butterfield in "All Good Children" decribed Bosket in his book as an intellgent man from a long line of criminals of both genders, dating back to slavery days in pre-Civil War South Carolina. The man's daddy even earned a degree from the University of Kansas! Willie started getting into trouble with the law since he was five. Despite all that and his scholastic record, Bosket tried to be a good wannabe, but a rash decision of criminality at fifteen in 1978 left him in juvenile hall. His conviction for murder in juvenile court led to rash changes in New York law that lowered the age of criminal transfer to thirteen in a number of cases from assult to murder. It was borderline racist when it passed overwhelmingly, but Bosket's bad behavior as an adult literally justified the change of the law. Bosket was barely out of trouble when he: tried to break out of a juvenile facility; four years after that, he was out 100 days when he assulted another man at the arpartment complex he and the man were living at; then he was convicted of assult and arson in actions related to his assult conviction. He struck out and was given twenty five years to life in prison for his habitual-offender status. Since then, he had not been a model prisoner. He is currently held in a specially-made cell in isolation with limited contact due to periodic attacks on guards and other prisoners over the years. (Just like Hannibal Lechter!) Now known as 84A6391, Bosket is now housed in that special cell at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility. He not up for parole until 2062, which means he is going to die there.
2. Eric Smith (1993): Thirteen-year-old Smith did a dumb thing which made him fall for the Bosket law in a big way. Not even born when the law was passed, the boy not only killed four-year-old Derrick Robie in their Upstate New York town of Savona, he raped and mangled the little kid. In 1994, he was convicted as an adult for the murder in the second degree despite a valient defense of his actions, which was felt was caused by a mental disorder. He was given nine years to life, the maximum penalty at the time for his crimes. He tried hard to get released after serving nine years, but the little boy's family want him to die in prison, afraid of Smith's intentions of moving back to Savona if released. They have never accepted any of the young man's apologies since that day their boy was found dead. It is like they have no heart of forgiveness despite Eric's letters and interviews with the media which has him forgiving himself for something he would never would have done as a grown-up. Since 2002, Smith has been denied parole five times. Nothing will ever change as long as members of Robie's family still harbor ill feeling and evil thoughts about the older boy for what he did to their little boy. This year will see Smith go up for parole again and get rejected for a sixth time. Sometimes, there is no forgiveness, even for undersized kids with glasses and red hair.
3. Cameron Kocher (1989): Five years before Smith's major crime came this case set in neighboring Pennsylvania. Cameron Kocher was accused of shooting and killing his seven-year-old neighbor and friend Jessica Carr in cold blood over a video game she beat him in over and over again. The prosecutor of this case at the time was making a name for himself in the Pocono Mountain political scene. So he thought he can try nine-year-old Cameron as an adult. He might has well have written his resignation papers that day. The blond-haired, blue-eyed kid, who never was in serious trouble in his short life, was facing life without parole for first-degree murder as an adult. Unlike fellow Pennsylvanian, Jordan Brown (whose own charges were false to the point of insanity), Kocher was released to his parents on $50,000 bail. Three long years past before it was learned that the prosecutor made a big mistake in his accusations agaist the boy. Kocher was sentenced as a juvenile on reduced charges and given probation. Karr's family was further devistated and never forgave either the boy or the state. Though questions of even innocence waft through the Poconos to this day, no one ever looked again at this murder or properly investigated the crime in the first place. The magical bullet that killed Carr was never found that day or ever, leading me to believe maybe the Carrs or their neighbors concealed it or someone else killed her. Also it was never really positive if Kocher even fired the .33 caliber rifle that day. The neighbors, who she was riding snowmobiles with the day she was killed that snowy day in the winter of 1989, were having domestic troubles. The lady left the man, leading the man to kick in the door of a family friend's house in an altercation that October, over six months after Jessica's death. The violation of his restraining order saw the man face jail time for the crime of passion. Also, the prosecutor in the original case who wanted to send Kocher to a life sentence had his career destroyed in a scandal involving child abuse, serving more time than Cameron did in jail. As of this year, Kocher has not gotten into any trouble. Let us hope it stays that way.
4 and 5. Mitchell Scott Johnson and Andrew Douglas Golden (1998): Two boys, one bad day and two different fortunes for the two blood brothers and best friends. Four kids and one teacher killed, with ten other people injured in a shooting spree on Mar. 25, 1998 outside their middle school in Jonesboro during the Golden Age of School Shootings (1998 to 2001). Mitchell was thirteen. Andrew was just eleven and a half. The prosecutor in the case later said if not for their ages, the boys would have been facing the death penalty or an adult charges like life without parole. Though both boys were sentenced in juvenile court, people affected by the shooting never forgave the kids or the state for trying them as juveniles. But I have to thank the prosecutor for the right decision for once. The results in retrospect led to two different fortunes. This is due to the nature of the two families. Andrew had a better family structure, so when released on his birthday in 2007, he started out with a clean slate, leaving Mitchell in the dust. (Andrew also had heard by that time of the older ex-buddy's misadventures.) Mitchell's life after release in 2005 was not so good, he was put in prison twice: once for drug charges and another for theft, financial identity fraud and drug possession. In 2008, the older man was sentenced to four years in jail. These days, it is much easier for Arkansas to persecute kids as young as eleven as adults in a variety of senerios. Time will only tell when another falsely-charged juvenile will show that said laws are patently unfair and illogical.
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