To: FReepers; everyone; All
Posted on 11/14/2011 12:28:06 PM PST by Darren McCarty
Six teenagers were convicted of murder in Washtenaw County and sent to prison for life without the opportunity for parole, but county officials recall the most controversial and gruesome as the one involving the killing of a 13-year-old girl who thought she might have been pregnant.
Christopher Machacek and Steven Stamper were just 16 years old when they picked up 13-year-old Mary Ann Hulbert in Stamper’s Ford Bronco from her Canton Township home, drove her to a field in Superior Township, blindfolded her and shot her to death because of the pregnancy scare.
The two boys were later tried as adults — after months of hearings to see if they should be charged as juveniles instead — and both were convicted of murder.
They’re both still in jail, where Machacek will stay for the rest of his life because he was convicted of first-degree murder. Stamper has the opportunity to be paroled because he was convicted of second-degree murder.
Their trial was about their crime. But today, Machacek also can be found among 358 prisoners in Michigan who were sentenced to life without parole for their roles in a homicide commited while they were teenagers.
In Michigan, all homicide suspects between 14 and 17 years old are charged as adults. If they are convicted of first-degree murder, the only allowable sentence is life without parole in prison with other adults. And as a result, Michigan has the second highest amount of juveniles between 14 and 17 years old sentenced as adults in the nation.
The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit in Detroit, claiming life sentences for juvenile offenders are cruel and unusual punishment. According to the lawsuit, juveniles sentenced to life in prison are less developed than adults, spend more time in prison and have a better chance for reform than adults.
(Excerpt) Read more at annarbor.com ...
This was a premeditated murder for convenience. These two punks murdered this 13 year old girl because they were worried she was pregnant. This is evil, and those two belong in prison.
If you are pushing to reform juvenile offenses, these two are among the worst examples to use. Prison is for murderers, rapists, thieves, and child molesters. Threats to society. These two still are a threat to society.
Okay...
They're not dead yet, right?
Hey, ACLU, I will make a deal with you. I will agree that this is a cruel and unusual punishment if Mary Ann steps forward and says she feels it is. Until then, I stand with the court's ruling.
“life without parole in prison with other adults”!
That’ll make you grow up real quick.
Soooo, how ya feel now 16 year old punk?
I would execute them.
Now bleeding heart liberals think “life is prison” is too cruel and unusual a punishment for juveniles who commit murder.
That’s a great argument for bringing back the death penalty to rid the world of these inhuman monsters.
The idiotic imbeciles on the US Supreme Court, for reasons that remain a complete mystery, declared it was “cruel and unusual” punishment to execute juveniles. I don’t age limit for the death penalty mentioned anywhere in the Constitution.
Now even life in prison for hardened young sociopaths is too much for the ACLU to bear.
Go figure.
The question is, what exactly do you want to do with people who commit crime? Do you want to punish them? To you want to reform them? Or do you want to protect society against them?
If you wish to punish them, then prison works. But only if it is prison. 3 hots and a cot, cable television, libraries, work out time and equipment, and free college education is not punishment.
But neither are those things rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is punishment with a gradual release back into society. Work gangs, prison employment, family visits, counseling and church activities. Some prison systems do work fairly well for rehabilitation and some do a very bad job.
But protection of our society? That’s where prisons really fall apart. If a person is deemed so dangerous that they cannot be released into society, then it is in the society’s best interest to end the “punishment” and just execute those prisoners. If they are so far gone as to not be able to be reformed, then we do them no favors in just keeping them alive.
We need to refocus on what we wish to achieve in our criminal justice system and make the changes that benefit our society to the greatest extent.
If they had elected to murder the unborn child instead Planned Parenthood would have paid for it and we’d never know their names
I am against long life sentences. They are cruel and unusual punishments for the taxpayers who have to support the murderers’ lifestyle in prison. Life sentences should be short, no more than 90 days.
Seems to me all the parents of that class should take that teacher to court. or at least demand she be fired from his/her job!. I’d have her job for taking my child into a danger zone. Talk about pushing an indoctrination! Did the parents have to sign a note giving permission? This makes me furious!
I think prison is for violent offenders and these two are where they belong.
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