Somer,
Your heart is in the right place and most of society apparently agrees with you b/c you know the punishment will be small.

But, to me, the torture of defenseless animals is done by morally weak people that have evil in them. Stupid decisions are one thing, this is another....The fact is, these people do not benefit society at the end of the day. No different than sex offenders, which have been proven to not be able to be rehabilitated. So what's the use....They'll get little if any punishment and it will be swept under the rug. But these guys are every bit as bad as the person doing the driveby shooting. And don't be surprised when they are 30 and in jail for violence against humans.

I would tend to agree....don't know the circumstances of course but most times, behavior like this just doesn't manifest without family being a factor.

This is the thing that stood out to me the most. Why is it that people are so unwilling to see malice for what it is? I don't understand the phenomenon of wanting to put euphemisms on the cruel things humans do. "Stupidity" means that something was done accidentally or without understanding that the action would produce pain within another living being. But here you have several horses being shot dozens of times, which certainly indicates intent instead of an accident, and you also have one of the boys saying that he had been injured by a horse in the past and wanted to shoot the horses, which certainly indicates that he KNEW full well his actions would cause harm and pain to the horses.

On top of that, I think the movement towards infantilizing anyone under the age of 18 is foolish. Yes, someone who's 16 may not have the same mind of a 25 year old, but they're not going to automatically learn to behave when they celebrate their 18th birthday if society continually sends the message that "oh you're just a kid, so obviously you didn't mean to do anything wrong." You have to teach and enforce the right behavior as early as possible. You can tell a kid about the difference between right and wrong, but unless you punish the bad behavior and reward the good behavior, they'll never have any incentive to actually practice the desired behavior. It seems to me our society is making it harder and harder for kids to become mature, functional adults by saying nothing's ever their fault and allowing them to get away with irresponsible, cruel actions.

Wow...you took a huge leap there! I'm not saying that a person isn't responsible for his/her behavior...we all are regardless of circumstances! It's called free will, we all have it and that means we are each responsible for everything we do. Nobody condones cruel behavior such as this, the difference lies in how best to deal with same. Lets be honest..."spare the rod and spoil the child" has been society's answer forever...and it hasn't worked. People change only when they want to change and find the inner strength to do so...no amount of punishment by society can change a person's soul...you can restrict, even eliminate overt actions but until people learn to respect life and the rights of others, you are only covering up the cancer not curing it. It isn't government's role to punish or kill people, rather it must protect and help! We lock folks up in massive prisons and they come out worse than they went in...that's a cold hard fact! And we are supposedly a civilized society yet we often sanction murdering children...ok, we call it capital punishment. When someone says that a child should be treated as an adult, that goes against the basic fact that a child is NOT an adult. There is evil in the world and it must be fought...there are evil people and those that may not be evil but succumb to evil's call that must be defeated, but that's not the same as saying that we have some right to our pound of flesh just cause someone's actions offend us. It's way past time that we stop focusing on punishing behavior and start working on eliminating the causes...yes, these kids committed heinous acts of cruelty and there must be consequences...but nobody benefits from bloodlust!

17 is an adult to me.

Would you sleep with a 17 year old girl randall?

What kind of question is that?

First, the age of consent in most states is 16, but since I'm a teacher, its 18 for me---as it is for a religious leader, police officer, etc....(So essentially the state is saying that 16 is as adult as needs be when it comes to sex)

But just b/c I wouldn't sleep with a 17 year old, doesn't mean they aren't an adult.

A loaded one

Haha. I guess so.:o

I didnt mean anything by it, just kidding around with you.

I still dont believe anyone under 18 should be able to be prosecuted as an adult. Not in any case.

For the record I also think Scott Peterson should be out playing golf. Not that I dont think he killed his wife, I dont think they proved he killed his wife. If I were on the jury I hang it.

hard to say unless you were there to hear it all.

that whole beyond a REASONABLE doubt thing too.

i think society is conflicted about the 18 and adult thing. kid can get an abortion and be considered an adult. but the same people who argue for that would say no way you consider them an adult for trial...

That is So not funny! That's like saying O.J. is innocent. They're both psychos....and there are young men 16-18 that have psychotic tendencies too. As citizen of this country we have a right to expect to live in relative peace, not to be subjected to societys' violent miscreants. The Welfare of THIS society is what should be protected, not the people who act out violently or irresponsibly.

We? Who's we? The morons and simps of our country?

Based upon what? CNN?

We=society.....don't start taking this personally, hunting is a huge part of Americana. And one more time, a generalization should never be construed to mean "all" or "everyone".

No physical evidence. With the forensics we have there should have been some sort of DNA linking him. I dont think it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

I think he killed her, everyone thinks he killed her...however, if the glove dont fit you must aquit

However you were not in the courtroom subject to the full case provided to the jury by the DA. Nor were you personally able to hear the defenses case. You only know what was told to us by the media which in many cases is far from credible.

I have court TV cannon.

I wasnt in the court room, however, I watched that entire trial and I just dont see how you convict the guy of murder. They just didnt prove the case IMO.