Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Criminal Law

: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Defining ?Cruel and Unusual? When Offender Is 13

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Sidebar Defining ?Cruel and Unusual? When Offender Is 13 By ADAM LIPTAK Published: February 2, 2009 In 1989, someone raped a 72-year-old woman in Pensacola, Fla. Joe Sullivan was 13 at the time, and he admitted that he and two older friends had burglarized the woman?s home earlier that day. But he denied that he had returned to commit the rape. The victim testified that her assailant was ?a colored boy? who ?had kinky hair and he was quite black and he was small.? She said she ?did not see him full in the face? and so would not recognize him by sight. But she recalled her attacker saying something like, ?If you can?t identify me, I may not have to kill you.? At his trial, Mr. Sullivan was made to say those words several times. ?It?s been six months,? the woman said on the witness stand...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on February 03, 2009 (boomark / email).