American Justice: Child's Play, Deadly Play

[wiseguy182]

So Lifetime Movie Network has been airing American Justice episodes on Sunday evenings, and what's particularly awesome about it is that they're airing episodes Bio never airs. A few days ago, they aired the episode on the Lionel Tate case.

Lionel Tate was 12 years old when he savagely murdered the 6 year old girl his mother was supposed to be babysitting -- Tiffany Eunick. Tate was tried as an adult. Now while I have mixed feelings on children being tried as an adult, there are 2 factors to consider here. One is that Tate was an especially large child, weighing 170 pounds at 12 years old. The second is that Tifanny's murder was very brutal, she had substained at least 35 injuries according to the coroner, including such injuries as a lacerated liver, fractured skull, fractured rib and swollen brain, among many others. During a videotaped re-enactment of the beating it shows Tate basically using Eunick as a rag doll.

Tate was, by all accounts, a bully. School officials had attempted on numerous occasions to inform his mother -- Kathleen Gossett-Tate -- of this, but she rejected them each time, and on some occasions, intimidated the officials by coming to the school wearing her state troopers uniform.

On the night of the murder, Tiffany Eunick was over at the Tate household and Kathleen was supposed to be watching her, but went upstairs to take a 3 hour nap instead. At one point during the beating, Lionel had informed his mother that Tiffany was making noises like a baby (perhaps due to the beating). Kathleen, instead of trying to help Tiffany or going to investigate the matter, instead told Tiffany to shut up or she'd come down and beat her buns. Some time later, Kathleen finally bothered to check on Tiffany and noticed she wasn't breathing.

Tate was tried as an adult. The prosecution attempted on numerous occasions to offer Lionel a plea deal, but Kathleen refused at every turn. The defense offered up an absoutely ridicilous claim by stating that Lionel was mimicing things he saw on pro wrestling. The jury didn't buy that malarkey and found Lionel guilty and he drew a life term.

That should have been the end of it, but waaah, here comes fat cow Al Sharpton and his protestors whining and demading "justice for Lionel". Um, how about justice for the little girl he brutally murdered? Even the prosecutor joined in, stating the sentence was "too harsh". The trial judge criticized the prosecutor for that, stating it compromised the legal system and that if the prosecutor didn't feel life imprisonment was fair then he shouldn't have asked for it.

Sadly, the jury's verdict was tossed out due to a technicality (Tate's mental capacity was not evaluated before the trial.) Tate was offered a plea deal AGAIN and this time he finally accepted. Lionel was released after just a few years behind bars, though he did have one years house arrest and 10 years probation.

And what did Tate do during that time? Well, he violated his probation agreement by going out of his house with a 4 inch knife. The following year, he robbed a pizza delivery man by gunpoint, then went back into his apartment complex and assaulted a witness. He was sentenced to 40 years for those crimes.