Man Sentenced to 25-50 Years After Daughter Kills His Son, 9

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

A Detroit man convicted in the death of his 9-year-old son who was shot by an older sister while the children were acting out a video game has been sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.

The 45-year-old man apologized on Monday in court, saying he loves his children. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, child abuse and several weapons charges.

The boy and his 11-year-old sister were visiting their father Nov. 9 and the loaded gun was unsecured in a bedroom closet. The girl testified that she and her brother were acting out a video game and that she had the shotgun when it fired.

She was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. The Associated Press isn't naming the family members so as not to identify the girl.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-sentenced-25-50-years-daughter-kills-son-40855708

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT — Jul 25, 2016, 12:31 PM ET

Short article. No more at link.

[mopinko]

1. more of this, please.

about damn time, but why do i have the sneaking suspicion that i know what color this man's skin is?

[The Second Stone]

4. Awfully long sentence for manslaughter, the man must be black

That must be the longest manslaughter sentence ever handed out that I've heard of.

[Igel]

12. Perhaps.

"Prosecutors say a jury on Thursday also found the man guilty of child abuse and several weapons charges. He was acquitted of a more serious second-degree murder charge."

It wasn't just manslaughter.

Guy was black. Judge white. Jury, given where the trial was, was probably mostly black.

It's worth pointing out that more important in the racial sentencing disparity than the skin color of the defendant is the skin color of the victim. White and black defendants both get far longer sentences, on average, when the victim is white than when the victim is black. In this case, the victim was also black, and the 11-year-old given a pass was also black.

Later research looked at race-related sentencing disparity for some types of crimes for white versus black judges. Black judges tended to award (statistically) significantly longer sentences for black defendants than for white defendants. The same data set indicated that white judges didn't award longer sentences to black defendants, but to white defendants, but the disparity was less. (Strictly speaking, the study probably said nothing about this crime--I don't remember the list of crimes included. But I don't see why in-group judgments wouldn't be harsher for defendants across the board, on average.)

[mark67]

13. ...my thoughts also...

...if the father was white they would have let him off easy, as it was a tragic "accident" and he had "already suffered enough"

[Person 2713]

16. YES

[flamin lib]

2. About damn time a careless adult is held accountable for his/her guns. nt

[billh58]

14. +100 n/t

[Schema Thing]

3. I'd like to see more of this. Which brings to mind "why don't we?", which then, unfortunately...

leads to "I wonder if this guy is Black?".

[Coventina]

5. That poor girl! I can't imagine living with that for the rest of my life.

She will need a lot of counseling.

[gwheezie]

6. Oh wait, this wasn't a tragic accident

And the family suffered enough?

[Person 2713]

17. No - note color

[Aristus]

7. Of course he loves his children. No one disputes that.

He just loved his guns more.

Have fun in the slam, creep...

[bigtree]

8. ridiculously long sentence

...this helps no one.

[coco77]

9. He didn't deserve this ..

Affluenza and others get less time when they commit crimes maliciously or otherwise. Just wrong.

[TeddyR]

10. Yeah, the conviction seems reasonable

The sentence outrageously severe, although perhaps he had past convictions that justified a longer sentence? I believe people have committed murder and received a lesser sentence.

[kestrel91316]

11. This needs to happen EVERY SINGLE TIME a kid gets a gun and kills themselves or someone else.

[Loki]

15. A Detroit man who is more than likely to be an AA male

Receives a very harsh sentence, and I'm not saying that he should not have been held accountable, but then look at the Texas teenager who is white who actually murdered 4 people by driving while intoxicated who receives probation because of being so "affluent" he just never learned how to behave responsibly? This is what has become the fomation of all of our distrust and anger towards our completely broken judicial system.