Chelsea+1A

October 27th, 2009

=Jury Convicts Teenager In Mich. Homeless Killings=

Pontiac, Mich., Teenager Found Guilty Of Felony Murder In Beating Deaths Of 2 Homeless Men

A 15-year-old boy, Thomas McCloud, was convicted tuesday, October 27th, 2009, for being a part of a double homicide and will spend the rest of his life in jail. The group of young men beat to death two homeless men in, Wilford "Frenchie" Hamilton and Lee Hoffman, in Pontiac, Michigan, August 2008. The two men were 61-years old, and the motive of the attack was larceny.  The defendant's attorney said that the case against them lacked hard evidence, and that the video of police interrogating his client was unclear, "jumbled", and confusing therefore having no value as evidence.

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The prosecution is representing the two dead homeless men against the teenagers. The prosecutor argued that these young men obviously had the intent of hurting these men and have no respect for human life. So locking them up for life would be the right punishment.======

The outcome of this case was that this young man, Thomas McCloud, will go to jail for the remainder of his life. As for the other young men, yet some have not been officially found guilty, others such as Dontez Tillman have also been sentenced with life in prison without chance of parole. The things I have learned from this unit include being fair, getting what you deserve, and not wrongly accusing someone of being guilty when they are not. I do think this ruling was fair considering the severity of these young men's actions. The 61-year-old men deserved life as much as you and I. being homeless has nothing to do with anything. These boys murdered two people. They beat them to death without reason, not that there is ever any reason to take someones life away. Yes I do believe the trial would have been different for an adult, I think that the court would show less remorse for an adult. Members of the jury were crying when the defendant was convicted and sentenced life in prison. I don't think they would have felt as sorry for an older person, which i do not agree with at all. These young men were as aware of their actions as anyone else would be, and they deserve the punishment they received. So no, I wouldn't change anything about the court's ruling, I found it fair and just.


 * Sources**

The Associated Press, Initials. (2009, october 27). Jury convicts 15-year-old in murder of

homeless men in pontiac. //mlive.com//,

Dontez Tillman, [Online image] available

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde%3FSite%3DC3%26Date%3D20091023%26Category%3DMETRO02%26ArtNo%3D910230375%26Ref%3DAR&imgrefurl=http://detnews.com/article/20091023/METRO02/910230375/Prosecutor--Homeless-men--easy-prey--for-accused-teen-killers&usg=__DhwyKrBOVVBvQM40rZNbrzcCm9w=&h=349&w=640&sz=40&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=viv6-oQ-cBix9M:&tbnh=75&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDontez%2Btillman%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1,,

,2009

Hammer, [Online image] available,

http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/uploadedImages/weyi/News/Stories/gavel(1).jpg, 2009