Jennie+Goldenberg

Date: 6-12-1998__** __**Location: Pearl, Mississippi**__
 * __Title: Teen guilty in Mississippi school shooting rampage.

Luke Woodham, at the time 16 year-old sophomore, open fired a hunting rifle at high school in Pearl, Mississippi, killing 2 teenagers and hurting 7 others. After Woodham's 11 minute rampage he just walked to the front of the school, got in his car and drove away. Not to long after he started driving he lost control, which was when the assitant principal Joel Myrick caught up to him and held him until the police arrived. When the authorities later went to Woodham's home the found his mother, Mary Ann Woodham dead. Police linked him to a group called Kroth. Police discovered a manuscript that was written by Luke Woodham, that expresses anger and talks about taking revenge on those he thought had done him wrong.
 * __Background Information:__**

He admitted to the shooting, but he kept saying that he was getting revenge on all the people that always mistreated him each and every day. he want "his enemies" to be gone.
 * __Defendant's Story:__**

__**Prosecutor's Story:**__ Woodham did not act on his own, that in fact he was in a group of six other Pearl-area teens that were involved in what looked like a plot to get rid of their enemies and win respect that they thought they should have. Allegations that the group practiced satanism as a cult,d Under the control of Grant Boyette. The group's goal was power and money.

A Mississippi jury found 17-year-old Luke Woodham guilty of two counts of murder and seven counts of aggravated assault for a shooting spree at Pearl High School in October of 1997. Judge Samac Richardson sentenced Woodham to two life sentences for the murder convictions and seven 20-year sentences for the aggravated assault convictions.
 * __Outcome:__**

__**Explication:**__ The judge was right to give Woodham the 2 consecutive life sentences plus the additional seven 20-ear sentences. I think that Luke deserved the sentencing that he got, and just because he was picked on by the other kids did not give him the right to kill 2 people and harm 7 others. I would have liked for the others in his group to get more extreme sentences though, because he was not the only one behind and there were journals and evidence to prove it. .

(1998, June 12). //Cnn- teen guilty in mississippi school-shooting rampage- june 12, 1998//. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/US/9806/12/school.shooting.verdict/
 * __Reference:__**

Hewitt, B. (1997, November 3). //The Avenger- murder, real people stories: people.com//. Retrieved from http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20123633,00.html