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10 May 2006 Jason Clinard gets life for murder Another unfair conviction This is about a case in Tennesee in the US. But while it is outside our remit in fact many of the principals apply to similar cases in the UK, most famously and horribly James Venables and Robert Thomson - who murdered the toddler Jamie Bulger. Jason was 14 when he shot and killed his school bus driver. He was tried as an adult when he was 16 and two days ago was found guilty of first degree murder and sentanced to life which means, in Tennasse, 51 years minimum in prison. A cruel way of dehumanising someone - worse than killing them. No different really to an old Chinese punishment of imprisoning a rebel in a bamboo cage and allowing people to watch them slowly starve to death. As usual with these cases when children murder details emerge in the trial of impossible backgrounds. Robert Thomson in the Bulger case was routinely bullied and beaten at home - completely brutalised. Jason's family had taken in 20 foster children in the few years before this event. After that had ended a stepdaughter from his father's previous marriage moved into the family home with two teenage sons. Jason had to move out of his room. She apparently made fun of Jason. His father was an out of work invalid who owned 40 guns. On the day of the shooting he left the case unlocked. The bus driver had reported Jason to the school authorities for dipping snuff on the bus and he had been given a 4 day inschool suspension. His football coach testified that he had met Jason in the school after this and he had said "I hate my bus driver. I hate her, I hate her, I hate her" In addition evidence was produced about head injuries Jason had suffered as a child. Here are some of the questions that the jury, judge and prosecution seem to have managed to avoid asking themselves:
The woman who he shot was a big woman. He had to pass her to get on the bus. He felt victimised by her. He had low coping skills and no loving home to fall back on. He got a gun which he should not have been able to get and shot her. Like most children about to do something terrible he left plenty of warnings - what he said to the coach, the fact that he left the loaded gun lying around on the table at home before the shooting. As always in these cases the adults manage to look away from their responsibilities and victimise a child. As a rule children do not kill unless something very weird is going on in their home backgrounds. Jason probably knew what he was doing was wrong. Equally he probably had little sense of how serious it was. The point is; when children kill it is a collective responsibility of the community. Some useful links
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