agreed - to me this kind of murder is no worse than murder in self defence. of course in an ideal world it wouldn't have to happen, and the technicalities are slightly different (given that the threat is systematic rather than immediate) but it's a very similar thing i think.
Yes, I tend to take on the clergyman's opinion. If you let yourself become a killer or an abuser then you let them take a little bit more of your soul. If the boy had killed his mother while she was beating him that would've made it more understandable. Everyday I come back to this topic and see another level of comments. It is very interesting debating this. I suppose everyone has slightly different opinions. I enjoy reading the comments but I have less to add as time goes by.
As someone who majored in criminal justice with a minor in sociology, I have sadly had the chance to view cases of children who have been neglected and abused. Not all of them survived. Even though in many of the cases they HAD told someone about what was going on. Children (and adults) who are severly abused as Jay was aren't thinking about how they're letting the abuser win, or that others will view it as cold blooded and becoming an abuser themselves. They are thinking of one thing and one thing only, survival. Obviously, a full pass shouldn't be given and I wouldn't have felt a couple of years in prison would have been too out of line but the idea that an abuse victim should get the book thrown at them for killing their abuser,esepcially when the system and adults failed to protect them, no. And I will never view the "mother" in this episode with anything more than contempt. You reap what you sow sometimes.
I agree. I think it also has to be taken into consideration the fact that children (even teenagers) haven't yet fully developed the decision-making/logic part of their brains (and this has been stated by many child psychologists and others in that type of field)... so his brain couldn't go to the a more logical action. As you said, his only instinct was survival and protecting his siblings. Granted, he could have waited until she was actually attacking him or his siblings, but he probably was too afraid to take the chance that she would see it coming and hurt him or his siblings worse. And I agree with you about the mother as well. I can't bring myself to view her as a victim. I can find sympathy for the child who was put in this situation, this broken state of mind by his own mother's abuse towards him and his siblings (a situation where he obviously felt that doing what he did was the only way out for himself and his siblings)... but I can't have any sympathy for the abusive monster of a mother no matter how hard I may try.
The problem with trying to give the guy a couple of years is if he was a juvenile when he killed his mom, he couldn't be given an adult sentence. And at this point in his life, what do you do with him? Lock him in juvie as a grownup? There was actually an old Law & Order episode that tried to deal with this same dilemma. Of course, there's probably been a Law & Order episode about every quirk of the justice system.
I remember that episode....it varies by state but in many cases, you can be tried as an adult even if you were a juvenile at the time of the crime.
I loved his episode and the 3 epsiode arc with Carver. He and Mac were interesting to watch. Two strong willed men working for what they believed.