[Lady Sidhe]

Teenager Freed in Killing Faces Robbery Charge

MIAMI, May 24 - Lionel Tate, the teenager sentenced to life in prison when he was 12 but freed when his conviction was overturned, was arrested Monday and accused of robbing a pizza deliveryman at gunpoint, the police said. It was his second arrest since his release in January 2004.

The police charged Mr. Tate with armed robbery after the deliveryman told them he had taken four pizzas to an apartment in Pembroke Pines and saw Mr. Tate hiding with a handgun behind the open door. The deliveryman, Walter Gallardo, said he dropped the pizza boxes and fled, only to be chased by Mr. Tate.

A 12-year-old boy who lives in the apartment told the authorities that he had let Mr. Tate, who was living nearby, use his phone to order the pizzas. Mr. Gallardo returned to the apartment complex with sheriff's deputies and identified Mr. Tate, who was among a group of people eating the abandoned pizzas, as his assailant.

"It's pretty airtight," said Elizabeth Calzadilla-Fiallo, a spokeswoman for the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

But James Lewis, a lawyer for Mr. Tate, who turned 18 in January, said the police charged him only because he was an easy target.

"He tells me that he absolutely robbed nobody, that he had no gun, that he had no altercation," Mr. Lewis said. "The cops came after it was all over and saw him with all the other fellows eating the pizza, and they assumed he was the guy."

Mr. Tate was convicted in 2001 of stomping and slamming Tiffany Eunick, 6, to death while she visited his home in 1999. He is believed to be the youngest American to receive a life sentence. His case became an international rallying point against treating juvenile offenders as harshly as adults.

Mr. Tate had served almost three years in prison when a state appeals court panel reversed his conviction on grounds that his mental competency should have been evaluated before his trial. He was released in January 2004, with the condition that he remain under house arrest for a year and on probation for 10 more.

In September, Mr. Tate was charged with violating house arrest after the authorities said they had found him outside late at night carrying a knife. But a Broward County Circuit Court judge decided against returning him to prison, instead adding five years to his probation.

Mr. Tate also faces a charge of armed burglary with a battery because the 12-year-old witness said Mr. Tate left the apartment after ordering the pizzas, then forced his way back in. He is being held without bail and is to be arraigned Wednesday. Mr. Lewis said his client realized the seriousness of the charges.

"If he had any involvement in this whatsoever, we all know what's going to happen," Mr. Lewis said. "Nobody is under any impression that the system will give him a second chance."



The system already gave him a second chance. Doesn't look like it did much good, did it? Armed robbery...just a trigger-pull away from murder. It means he would've been willing to kill the guy. So much for rehab.

Look, it seems that none of us really agree with each other. There are the pro-DP and con-DP folks. The pros generally seem to agree that something has to be done to protect society, and if a crime is so heinous that it warrants the ultimate penalty, then so be it. The cons generally seem to believe that all life is sacred and/or no one, even the state, has the right to put a person to death, no matter what the crime. Correct me if I'm wrong on this (I know y'all will), but that seems to be the basic premise of each side.

Ultimately, I believe that society must be protected. If it takes the death penalty to keep one person from killing however many others, then I'm all for the death penalty.

I'd be all for life imprisonment if 1.) it really meant LIFE imprisonment, and 2.) prisons were self-sufficient, without the amenities that law-abiding citizens don't even have (like cable, gyms, etc.). Let them grow their own food. Let them make their own clothes (we'll even give them the machines- they can plant cotton, then turn it into material, just like they did back in the day, only we'll give them the machines to do it with). Let 'em have tents and electrified fences. Their own little prison community. For LIFE. That would be fine by me--we could do away with the death penalty. Let them do each other if they choose.

But dammit, society should come first.


Sidhe