Texas Boy, 13, Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Stabbing

[Chris_]

Texas Boy, 13, Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Stabbing

WACO, Texas —  A 13-year-old boy who admitted stabbing a teenage friend to death earlier this summer has received a 15-year sentence as part of a plea agreement.

State District Judge Alan Mayfield accepted the plea agreement Monday after rejecting a 10-year proposal earlier this month. The boy was 12 at the time of the June 6 stabbing.

Authorities said the boy, whose name is not being released because of his age, stabbed 14-year-old Keith Dancer in the heart with a steak knife during a dispute.

Mayfield told the youth that if he continues to show good behavior, he could be released on parole in three years.

Life with no possibility of parole would be more appropriate.  I guess the cost of a 14yr old's life has been reduced to as little as 3 years in prison for his killer.   

LINK

[Lord Undies]

Indeed.  How long was the 14-year-old's death sentence?

This is a tough one to judge.   12-year-olds are children.  Children make some drastic errors sometimes.  The kid should certainly pay a dear price for his act of murder, but I don't know if his entire life should be spent in payment. 

I've known some pretty bad kids who are fine adults (and the reverse).   People really do have two lifetimes.  They have a childhood and then an adulthood. 

To punish a person far into adulthood for a crime committed when he was 12 is almost like punishing two different people for the same crime. 

It's a tough one to judge.