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12 May 2006 Christopher Pittman Another unfair conviction This case relates to Christopher Pittman who is currently serving 30 years in the prison system in South Carolina in the US. In 2001 Chris aged 12 blasted his grandparents to death with a shotgun as they lay in bed. The case reveals attitudes to children that are not limited to America which is why we cover it here. He was tried as an adult when he was 16. The defence attemtped a defence that he was under the influence of Zoloft - an anti-depressant drug made by Pfizer Inc. This failed. As in the case of Jason Clinard the only way this child could have been convicted was by massive and deliberate blindess on the part of all the adults involved in the process. The Zoloft defence was kind of likely to fail. I can't really assess that. Anecdotally I think that anti-depressants can cause lower impulse control as they put people into a sort of spaced out place. I don't know about the chemistry and the brain (does anyone?) and I haven't reviewed any statistical studies. My anecdotal knowledge is based on a friend who committed a violent and out of character act while on Valium. The actual defence, in brief, is this: Christopher had a very difficult home life. His mother left the family, came back and left again. His father frequently beat him with a wooden paddle. He forced him and his sister to do menial jobs around the house and generally treated them like dirt. Christopher was sent to live with his grandparents. His violent army father gave him, aged 12, a pump-action shotgun. On the day of the murder Christopher was in trouble for fighting on the school-bus. Obviously he was in a new school - not unusual for boys to have settling in difficulties. He was allowed to use the shotgun in the afternoon by his grandfather but not allowed to shoot squirrels. Only targets. Which is a bit like giving someone a bazooka and telling them they can only shoot tin cans. As a punishment for the school-bus fighting episode Christopher's grandfather shut him in his room for the rest of the afternoon and told him he would be beaten if he came out. At 10pm Christopher came out to get food or drink. He was attacked by his grandfather who beat him with the wooden paddle - on his back and his butt. According to Christopher he was beaten back into his room. That is when he went out to meet a basic human need for survival he was beaten back like a wild animal. We might add that the paddle was the same one that his father had used to beat him with. When he had gone to live with his grandparents his father had sent along the paddle. Christoper refered to it as my paddle. Pretty twisted. In killing his grandparents Christopher acted in self-defence against what he must have felt was an attempt to destroy his life. He was treated like a wild animal and he acted like one. But we still can't make this kind of defence it seems. The role of anti-depressants and ritalin and amphetmines in young people who commit crimes of homicide merits investigation. It is a subject we will return too. Some useful links
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