A 12-Year-Old Lifer?

A Florida appeals court has ordered a new trial for Lionel Tate, the teenager who was sent to prison for life three years ago for killing a 6-year-old playmate when he was 12. The court ruled that not enough had been done to make sure that Lionel understood what was going on in court. And although the opinion stops short of condemning harsh treatment of juvenile offenders, it makes plain that special efforts must be taken to ensure that children’s futures are not cast aside in the grown-up zeal to be tough on crime.

Lionel was a giant of a child -- nearly 6 feet tall and 165 pounds -- when he pummeled little Tiffany Eunick so violently on July 28, 1999, that she died from blunt-force trauma. But though he may have looked like a man, Lionel was immature, even for a boy of 12. The fifth-grader had an IQ of 90 and lagged three or four years behind his actual age on tests of mental maturity. He said he had hurt Tiffany during a game, that he had thrown, kicked and slammed her down in imitating professional wrestlers he had seen on TV.

The trial court should have held a special hearing to determine whether Lionel was mature enough to participate in his defense, the appellate panel ruled. “The record reflects that questions regarding Tate’s competency were not lurking subtly in the background, but were readily apparent ... [and] at the heart of the defense.”

Lionel didn’t testify in his trial, and the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, relying on expert testimony that Tiffany’s injuries were too severe to have occurred during horseplay. Under Florida law, the conviction required a sentence of life in prison, without parole.

The sentence went down uneasily. It is one thing to declare that juveniles should be held to tough standards when they commit violent crimes. It is quite another to send a boy just out of elementary school off to spend his life behind bars. Forty human rights advocacy groups filed briefs on appeal, arguing for his release. Even the prosecutor decried the sentence, contending that although the trial was fair and life in prison might be “legally correct,” the punishment was “not appropriate in a civilized society.”

The appellate court sidestepped that issue this week by refusing to challenge the Florida law that allows children as young as 8 to be tried as adults. That’s a missed opportunity to advance a much-needed debate. But the ruling does bring welcome relief to this particular tragedy. If Lionel is allowed out on bail next month, he will have served the three years prosecutors once offered -- and he, at the direction of his mother and lawyer, rejected -- in a proposed plea-bargain deal.

Officials ought to forget about pursuing another trial and fashion a new deal, one that would better serve society’s needs by providing Lionel, now 16, with psychological treatment and monitoring, rather than wasted years in the penitentiary.