Boy, 15, gets 60 years for raping 6 year old girl

[Locutus]

Judges do have common sense after all. When do we get some too?


CLAYTON -- A judge sentenced to 60 years in prison this morning a teenager who had pleaded guilty of kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting a neighbor in Spanish Lake on Nov. 11, 2005, when he was 13 and she was 6.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Melvyn W. Wiesman imposed the sentence on Sherman Burnett Jr., now 15 and the youngest inmate ever housed in the county jail.

In imposing the lengthy sentence -- Burnett will be ineligible for parole until at least the year 2056, when he is 64 -- Wiesman rejected confining Burnett in a juvenile offender program in Montgomery City, Mo., where Burnett could have gotten a chance at probation as early as age 17.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...A5E1FF8453EF5C2586257394005C3087?OpenDocument

 

[Sal]

The guy is clearly a psychopath. Obviously very bad things happened to him too at some point. However, I don't want him living beside me anytime soon so, yup, lock him up.

 

[jwmcq625]

Good for that American judge, at least he shows some common sense, and is concerned about the safety of society. Unfortunately that type of sentence would never happen in Canada, because the Liberals have loaded the judiciary with bleeding-heart Liberal connected lawyers, with not a lick of common sense or decency.

In many jurisdiction in the U. S. A., judges are elected as well as District Attorney's, and the upside of that is that for some reason these judges are mindful of community standards. In Canada, since they are virtually appointed for life and are accountable to nobody, they have no fear of losing their jobs, not that they do a very good job at it to start with. Cnaadian judges are far too busy ordering our elected officials how in their opinion the laws should read, and apply.

In my neck of the woods the feds just appointed the Court of Queens Bench, a lawyer and former President of the John Howard Society, talk about a bleeding heart organization. If they had their way jails would be virtually closed because their belief is that everyone is able to be rehabilitated, and since they will get back out anyway, why put them behind bars at all, just send them to the JHS mickey-mouse programs and society will be safe from these predators from re-offending.

 

[gerryh]

you betcha....throwing a 15 year old boy into the slammer till he's 54 for something he did when he was 13 is REAL inteligent.:roll:

 

[Walter]

Have his gonads been removed?

 

[Kreskin]

I don't excuse anything the boy has done but to send him away for life over an incident one day in his life occuring at age 13 seems excessive. He was a boy and still is a boy. The judge should be put away for life.

 

[Locutus]

And the little girl he raped? This punk is NOT the victim here folks.

 

[Kreskin]

Him sitting in prison at age 48 isn't going to do anything for her, and it's not like she's getting 200 lashes under sharia law. I don't excuse his behavior, and she certainly is the victim, but a 13 year old is a child. If all of us were held accountable today for what we did at age 13 most of us would be put in jail. At that age I remember blowing up someone's garbage can will a quarter stick of dynamite. I wouldn't excuse a 30 year old for doing that but 13 year olds don't completely understand the severity of some of their actions.

 

[karrie]

I really can't say if it was or wasn't a fair sentence with the limited description of his crime.

What does 'kidnapping' mean exactly? That he convinced a neighbor kid to come over and play? Or that he walked blocks away and snatched a stranger's kid violently?

What does 'beat' mean? Did he slap her once? Or did he hit her repeatedly, for hours on end? Punch and kick her?

What does 'rape' mean? Did he quickly force himself on her? Or did he hold her for hours and violate her repeatedly?

All these words can cover such a broad spectrum of crimes, there's no way I can say what it was exactly he did, or what he deserved as a sentence.

 

[gerryh]

Read the article Karrie, it gives you all of that info. He was very violent. The boy has VERY MAJOR problems. Putting him in prison untill he is 54 years old is NOT going to help him one bit, and in fact will be a death sentence because he will be completely unprepared to enter into society...but hey....what the hell....not our kid.

 

[karrie]

Yeah, I don't think I can take reading nasty details today. I'm glad I avoided the link.

Again though, it leaves me not knowing what the right sentence would be. How many violent sexual predators that start at such a young age are ever rehabilitated? Is there really anything that can be done besides trying to keep them away from the public?

I wonder what the magic age is for this child committing a man's crime, when we would feel completely justified in hitting him with this sentence.

 

[Hazmart]

I disagree with the sentence that the judge gave to this boy.
Jail time isn't going help this boy and it's not going to help to prevent this from happening again to someone else. I don't know what the answer is to a situation like this but obviously it hasn't been found.
With all the money that is spent on scientific research and technological advances why can't we produce a better plan to rehibilitate/treat patients like this

 

[karrie]

I feel the sentence is fair if the kid can't be rehabilitated.... but I sure hope there are allowances and attempts being made to rehabilitate him. Not making allowances for that is, to my way of thinking, what makes the sentence unfair.

 

[Hazmart]

I feel the sentence is fair if the kid can't be rehabilitated.... but I sure hope there are allowances and attempts being made to rehabilitate him. Not making allowances for that is, to my way of thinking, what makes the sentence unfair.

A very good point, I agree with that.

 

[gerryh]

Well....I guess the Judge and prosecutor felt that he couldn't be rehabilitated. So.....there will be a 15 year old boy, going into an Adult prison, getting out some where around 40 years from now after learning all kinds of great things....probably reofend because he wasn't given counceling or anything else he would need,.... and then ya'll can beat the tom tom's...pat yerselves on the back and continue to say....see, those deviants can't be rehabilitated......kinda like a self fulfilling prophesy.....but hey....what the hell...he ain't our kid.

 

[MikeyDB]

And the little girl he raped? This punk is NOT the victim here folks.

The day a Catholic priest gets the same sentence for buggering little boys and sexaully abuse masked and protected by the Catholic Church you can give us perhaps an expanded answer on victimhood here.

The quick answer would be to ordain the youngster and give him the shelter of the Vatican right...?

 

[Sal]

I feel the sentence is fair if the kid can't be rehabilitated.... but I sure hope there are allowances and attempts being made to rehabilitate him. Not making allowances for that is, to my way of thinking, what makes the sentence unfair.

And therein lies the problem.

Also IF he is a socio/psychopath there is NO rehabilitation for him at this time. As we can not predict the future or access him psychologically down the road, for now his sentence must stand.

If it were anyone's four year old you would want him hanged not living beside you and "going for counselling".

And to be clear rape is rape... there is no such thing as mildly raped although there is repeatedly raped. That little girl may well be emotionally or mentally dead for the rest of her life if they can't "fix" her too. And if not what he did is akin to murder folks. A 13 year old who murders on any level is still a life destroyer.

Some people should never have children... some people should never be allowed to add to the gene pool. But hell they have rights....

We are light years away from understanding the mind and while it is nice to be warm and fuzzy, danger is danger. The 13 year old was likely violated beyond anything imaginable to do that at his age. I feel bad for that. But for now, it is too late for him and may well be forever.

 

[gerryh]

Oh....my.......god...... no wonder so many in this world are so quick to go to war and/or justify it.

There is a 6 year old(now eight) little girl that is going to need intensive counceling to get her life back on track,because if she doesn't, who knows what kind of mental psychosis she could end up developing as she get' older. That is victim number one.

Yes, I said victim number 1, because in reality there ARE 2 victims here. The 13 year old(now 15), as has been pointed out, in all likleyhood has also been a victim for his mind and morals to have become so warped.

Does life have so little meaning that we can callously throw away lives without even trying?