How long until he’s misguided?
I’ve already registered my opinion that for particularly sadistic, cold-blooded murders, children forfeit their childhood and should be executed just like adults. If the duo they just arrested turn out to be the sniper team, that makes 17-year-old Lee Malvo an accomplice to ten first-degree murders and three attempted murders. If he was there for the Alabama liquor store shootings, you can add one to each of those totals. I’m not a lawyer, but I believe that if someone abets a murder, he faces the same charges as the guy who actually committed the murder. This kid might be in some big trouble, to put it mildly.
The question: how long will it take before we see the first round of stories describing Lee Malvo as a misunderstood youth who fell under the influence of a bad guy, or a group of bad guys? Chris Wavrin, my colleague, says a day. I’m guessing three days, as people start to get over the shock of the entire sniper episode.
The whole question turns on free will, as Pete said below about the death penalty. My speculation is based on how people reacted to John Walker Lindh, who was a “boy” of 21 who freely chose to run off into the hills of Afghanistan to join a band of murderous, hand-severing, woman-beating thugs. Many people reacted by saying “He was just a kid!” American “kids” are old enough to get contraceptives in many public schools at the age of 12, but they aren’t supposed to be responsible for joining a foreign militia. It’s my guess that Malvo won’t be held responsible, in the minds of many, for helping to murder innocent strangers. Watch for the sentence “He made a mistake” in the next few days.