An 11-Year Old Murderer

This blog is in response to an article I recently read on CNN.com. You can find it here:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/10/pennsylvania.young.murder.defendant/index.html

Eleven-year old Jordan Brown of Pennsylvania has been accused of murdering his eight-month pregnant stepmother in her sleep and now faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted. I felt moved to write after reading the article mostly because of the way this story was presented. I am unsure what one should expect when reading this type of news, but what I did not expect was the great amount of sympathy toward the boy. The people that were interviewed speak highly of Jordan, referring to him as an "All-American boy" and mentioning his good manners. The article goes on to say that his birthday and Christmas holiday were spent in the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Detention Center and that he missed a "much-anticipated fifth-grade overnight field trip to Gettysburg." Yet another section states that "his attorneys say Jordan is still unable to grasp the magnitude of what is happening to him."

In my opinion the first mistake was made by Jordan's father, Chris Brown. Jordan was given a shotgun last year as an Easter present so that he could hunt alongside his father. Hunting is not a new concept for me. I was raised in the South and know many families who take their children out for jaunts in the woods. My question is why does an eleven-year old have access to a gun without an adult present? The gun should have been placed under lock and key when Jordan was not with his father or another responsible grown-up who could monitor him.

I understand that this is a sad situation for everyone involved but I do not feel his age is reason enough to shower him in sympathy and fight for a lesser sentence. If sufficient evidence proves that Jordan Brown was in fact the killer then he should pay the full price. A mother of three children is dead; one unborn son and two daughters, aged four and seven. Parents are left without their beloved daughter and a fiancé without his bride-to-be. The grandmother will have to raise the girls and worst of all explain to them how their stepbrother took their mother's life. I am certain they will not "grasp the magnitude" of the situation either; however they will have no choice but to deal with what has happened.

The Court would not ruin Jordan's life by sentencing him to prison. The cold hard fact is that Jordan ruined his own life when he made the decision to end two others.