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Boy faces life in prison
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A FLORIDA judge sentenced a 14-year-old boy on Friday to life in prison without parole for the murder two years ago of a 6-year-old girl, rejecting the defense's request for a retrial or a reduction in the verdict.
In a case that has sparked controversy over the right punishment for a person so young, Broward County Circuit Judge Joel Lazarus ordered Lionel Tate to serve the state's mandatory sentence for a juvenile convicted of first-degree murder in an adult court -- life in prison without parole.
Tate was tried as an adult -- in Florida, juveniles charged with serious crimes may be prosecuted as adults -- and was convicted by a Broward County jury in January in the July 28, 1999 death of Tiffany Eunick.
His defense said at the trial that the girl died accidentally while Tate roughhoused with her in his home, imitating wrestlers' moves he had seen on television. But the prosecution said the injuries she suffered were far too severe for Tate not to have known he was inflicting serious harm.
The jury agreed in its conviction, and so did Lazarus in his strongly worded sentencing statement.
Tate's lawyers said they would appeal the sentencing, and the prosecutor, Ken Padowitz, said he would make a clemency appeal to Florida Governor Jeb Bush, younger brother of President George W Bush, for a reduction of the sentence.
Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement the sentence was a violation of international law, which, it said, clearly states that the possibility of parole cannot be denied to children, however serious their crime.
The governor's spokeswoman, Elizabeth Hirst, quoted Bush assaying he found the entire case "very tragic" and continued to extend his sympathies to the families of both Eunick and Tate.
She added that Bush would request that the state's Corrections and Juvenile Justice departments "work together to see if it would be appropriate to house Lionel in a juvenile facility, at least for the time being."
Tate's case, which has been watched by civil rights groups that have argued the boy is too young to face life in prison, appeared to be far from over.(SD-Agencies)
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