[boroman]

It seems more reasonable than not to give a kid who committed a crime when he was 13 and has been crime-free for the six years hence a second change. Have none of the posters here made a youthful indiscretion?

[MamaB]

Nope! I did not dare do anything even if my mom did not know anything about it. She would have dreams about it and tell us exactly what happened. My great grandmother was a Cherokee Indian and we think some of her descendants got the ability to see things. Another example, after our daughter died in 2004, we went to see her in another state. She told us what had happened at her granddaughter's funeral and where my husband and I were sitting. Spooky, yes, but having grown up with it, we did not think anything about it.

Something else. When my brother and my niece went to tell my mom about Jan, she asked them why they were crying although they were not at the time and said she had figured it out who had died. Frankly, I had rather be reading than getting into any kind of trouble when I was a kid. I am still a very avid reader.

[panthermom]

Let’s see, to me a youthful indiscretion is sneaking out of the house, taking the car without asking, skipping school, drinking, smoking. Helping to tie a girl up while she is raped with a toilet plunger, watching and then going to watch tv is not a youthful indiscretion!!

[CowboyJay]

Hope you just forgot to add ‘/s’ to the end of your post. Hate to say it, but if this ‘kid’ were black, he’d still be sitting in prison.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Have none of the posters here made a youthful indiscretion?

I remember throwing firecrackers where I should not have. Others can perhaps remember doing indescretions like drawing grafitti, drinking beer underage, etc. I think torture/rape is a bit more than an indescretion, but maybe I am a prude.

I understand that unless someone did something bad enough to be locked up for the rest of his life, he at some point will need a second chance. However, many of us somehow managed to never hurt anyone, we just follow the rules and do the best we can. We toil our way through life and no one for so much as a millisecond thinks we deserve a first chance, much less a second chance. We find, if we are lucky, that rewards we earned twice over are grudgingly half-given to us. But if you are a violent criminal, suddenly you deserve any number of chances. If you manage not to rape or kill a second time, you are a moral giant, Socrates reborn! Those of us who never harmed anyone are supposed to grovel before the criminal who "learned his lesson" and acknowledge his superiority. People who perhaps have earned a chance are supposed to surrender it so someone else, who perhaps deserves nothing, can enjoy a second chance.

[Betty Jane]

Maybe or maybe not on him deserving a second chance. But no on having him receive a scholarship when there are other young men who would love to receive a football scholarship who never aided in the rape and torture of their cousins?