Haley+Williams+1A

 Is an eleven year old capable of double homicide? Haley Williams  Jordan Brown, an eleven year old boy, was charge as an adult in Wampum, Pennsylvania on February 19, 2009 for criminial homicide of his father's twenty-six year old girlfriend and the criminal homicide of an unborn child. Kenzie Marie Houk was eight months pregnant when she was shot in her sleep in the back of the head. It is believed that Brown shot her with a 20-gauge shotgun he received for Christmad from his father to hunt with. Kenzie had two daughter, ages seven and four that lived with Brown and his father, Christopher Brown. Her youngest daughter told tree cutters outside of the farmhouse on the Friday morning Kenzie was shot that she thought her mom was dead and they called 911. There is not a known reason for her murder, but it is suspected that Brown was jealous of her and the baby. (I couldn’t find any resources showing Jordan Brown’s side of the story.)

Jordan Brown’s attorney, Dennis Elisco doesn’t believe there is enough evidence to pin point the young boy as the sole suspect. He entered a not-guilty plea to two homicide counts on Brown's behalf and said the boy continues to deny shooting Houk. Brown told police there was a suspicious black truck on the property the morning of the shooting, causing investigators to look into a false lead for a few hours. Inconsistencies in Brown's description of the vehicle led police to re-interview the victim's 7-year-old daughter, who implicated the boy in the killing, Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo said. Although the young girl accused the boy in the killing she didn’t eyewitness the shooting therefore Elisco doesn’t believe there is enough support in this case to charge a young boy with double homicide. The Victim’s daughter saw Brown with what she believed to be a shotgun and then heard a loud bang later that morning. The shotgun, which apparently belonged to Brown, is designed for children and did not have to be registered. Dennis Elisco, said the evidence points to the gunshot wound being "consistent" with the boy's hunting gun, but he wanted to see stronger evidence that it was Brown's.

 The outcome of this case has not prevailed yet. There is still much arguing going on about whether or not Brown should be tried as an adult or not. Pennsylvania law allows prosecutors to charge children as young as ten with criminal homicide, but Brown’s attorney, Elisco, is trying to get Brown to be charged as a juvenile. Brown is currently being held at a juvenile detention center in Erie. He was originally held at Lawrence County Jail, but his attorney managed to convince the judge at a preliminary hearing to have Brown moved to a juvenile facility. Although Brown is being held at a juvenile facility, it has not yet been decided whether he will be tried in juvenile court or as an adult. If he is tried in juvenile court, he can't be held past his 21st birthday and could be released within four years. If he's found guilty of a double homicide in adult court, Brown would be ordered to a life term in prison without the possibility of parole.

 I think that this court case shows how much of an emphasis is put on people’s ages sometimes. In //The Crucible//, the girls accusing the women of being witches are very young, yet the majority of the town trusts them. In our time, I don’t think adolescents are trusted as much as adults, but adults do have a natural tendency to try and protect them just because they are young. I think that Jordan Brown should be tried as an adult. I don’t believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I do believe that you should pay for a crime you commit. It seems quite obvious to me that he did commit a double homicide and I don’t think it would be fair for him to get out of juvenile detention when he turns 21 and be free to murder again. I’m sure he does have psychological problems and that did add to him committing the crime, but does not mean he shouldn’t still be punished. If Brown wasn’t an adolescent then I don’t think there would have been nearly this much of a delay before the trial and conviction. 