Update: Lionel Tate's case will be featured on ABC's 20/20 tonight.

14 year old Lionel Tate cries as Judge imposes life sentence

"It was a tragedy that shocked the nation — the 1999 murder of a 6-year-old little girl, Tiffany Eunick, by her 12-year-old family friend, Lionel Tate. Perhaps as shocking as Tiffany's death was Lionel's conviction of first-degree murder and his sentence to life imprisonment."

Lionel Tate is the youngest person to be sentenced to life without. He was 12 at the time of the killing. He was offered a deal, but his mother convinced him to turn it down.

How could a 12 year old possibly understand the nature and consequences of a plea bargain?

Now, two years later, people are questioning whether justice was served, or whether Lionel should be shown some mercy. The prosecutor who won the case, even Tiffany's grieving mother, now feel that the punishment was too harsh for a child.

Tiffany's mom, Deweese Eunick-Paul, remembers meeting Lionel and his mom, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, after she and Tiffany moved to Broward County, Fla., near the resort city of Fort Lauderdale. The mothers, both divorced, became close friends and began helping each other take care of the children.

....In his January 2001 trial, Lionel sat quietly in court, almost as if he didn't know what was happening, watching through the eyes of a young adolescent. He never took the witness stand. Instead, his defense team entered a video reenactment into evidence, saying that Lionel, who loved wrestling, was only imitating wrestling moves he'd seen on television. But the wrestling defense backfired.

... "I offered Lionel Tate, three years in a juvenile facility, followed by one year of house arrest and 10 years of probation with psychological counseling and therapy." [State's attorney] Padowitz said he didn't understand why neither Tate, nor his attorneys, nor his mother accepted the deal.

On Jan. 25, 2001, the jury unanimously convicted Tate of first-degree murder. At Tate's sentencing hearing, just days after his 14th birthday, the judge stunned the court when he ordered Lionel to serve the rest of his life in prison, without chance of. It was a mandatory sentence in the state of Florida. As Lionel was led out of court in shackles, he broke down and cried.

The issue here is competency. These children are not mentally competent to stand trial as adults. Competency is different than mental illness, retardation or sanity. The question to be asked of a juvenile, particularly those 14 and under, are: can he understand the nature of the proceedings? Can he assist in his own defense? Can he understand his legal rights? Can he make critical decisions such as whether to testify or enter or refuse a plea bargain?

A study released earlier this week found that "a third of children aged 11 through 13 and a fifth of those aged 14 or 15 understood legal matters at a similar level as mentally ill adults who have been found incompetent to stand trial. Older adolescents did not perform significantly different from young adults."

The director of the study says that 200,000 children are charged as adults in this country every year. Tens of thousands are under 16.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia set no minimum age at which children could be tried as adults, and 27 set a minimum age for at least some crimes of 15 or younger. Professor Steinberg said the study suggested that change was called for.
"We should not set the age of transfer" from juvenile courts to criminal ones "at 12 or 13, as many states do, because we will be jeopardizing children," Professor Steinberg said. At a minimum, extensive competency evaluations should be done before juveniles are transferred, he said.

Petitions have been submitted to Florida Governor Jeb Bush for clemency on behalf of Lionel Tate. Even the prosecutor filed one.

Update: 1/26/04, Lionel Released from Jail. You can find a recap of the case here.