# A ridiculous end to a ridiculous "trial" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 1, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034 "2010-11-01T00:52:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034/281 "2010-11-07T20:24:49Z")
All insult, no cites, no points, no arguments. Classy. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034/282 "2010-11-07T22:01:26Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > All insult, no cites, no points, no arguments. Classy. My last post’s argument can be boiled down thusly: You deliberately misread my post. I’m not surprised you missed it, seeing has how you’ve been been doing it all thread. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034/283 "2010-11-08T06:51:54Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > When [Alyssa Bustamante](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/19/alyssa-bustamante-slaying_n_364544.html) was fifteen years old, police say she strangled, stabbed, and cut the throat of her nine-year-old neighbor, killing Elizabeth Olten and burying her in a grave she had dug in advance. She is being tried as adult. If convicted, she’ll be subject to the same penalities as an adult. You also object? > > [Tylar Witt](http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=70801) was fifteen when she was alleged to have killed her mother by drugging her with a narcotic, stabbing her in her sleep, and then burning her clothes to destory the evidence. Problems here? > > How about the dozens of other fifteen year olds in the past quarter-century that have been tried as adults for various heinous crimes? I would object. Either children have less-developed judgement and should be treated differently by the justice system than adults, or not. I don’t see how the crime being particularly heinous has anything to do with it. And certainly you’re not going to convince me that the teenager who commits a horrific murder has _better_ judgement than a typical teenager (not that you’ve attempted to make that argument). That said, you could argue where we should draw the age line between child and adult, and you could argue what the maximum sentence for a child should be… and I’m not sure what the best answer is to either of those questions. But whatever lines and limits we set, I don’t think we should throw them out just because a particular crime especially horrifies or angers us. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034/284 "2010-11-08T07:21:32Z")
Well, of all the rude!..Hey, butt out, me and **Hamlet** are having a private pissing match and you come barging in like…oh. How embarassing. Sorry. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034/285 "2019-03-25T23:32:54Z")
Sorry, but since we’re getting close to Easter, I hope it’s okay to resurrect this thread to note that [Omar Khadr is now a free man](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/khadr-war-crimes-expired-1.5068610). His behaviour since his release on bail in 2015 has been “[perfect](https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/decision-expected-monday-on-omar-khadrs-request-to-end-remaining-sentence)”. Omar is totally back from the limbo known as Guantanamo. And, to all those whose blind hate made them mad to torture and punish a brainwashed 15-year-old boy who thought he was defending his home and his god, and who would have been okay with him had he been wearing a uniform, fuck you. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034/286 "2019-03-25T23:56:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Sorry, but since we’re getting close to Easter, I hope it’s okay to resurrect this thread to note that Omar Khadr is now a free man. His behaviour since his release on bail in 2015 has been “perfect”. > > Omar is totally back from the limbo known as Guantanamo. > > And, to all those whose blind hate made them mad to torture and punish a brainwashed 15-year-old boy who thought he was defending his home and his god, and who would have been okay with him had he been wearing a uniform, fuck you. BTW, to save anyone who’s interested the trouble of flipping back to my OP, I couldn’t say it any better today than I did eight years ago: > [@KarlGauss](#): > > Omar Khadr was fifteen years old when, by his own admission, he killed a US Delta Force medic in firefight in Afghanistan. He also admitted to planting bombs targeting, among others, civilians (NB - AFAIK, the bombs were never detonated). > > The details of his case can be found in [this Wiki link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr) about him. > > Notwithstanding a prearranged, but secret, plea deal which will give him “only” eight (more) years behind bars, a [US military jury today sentenced him to forty years imprisonment](http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/883761--khadr-to-serve-eight-years?bn=1). By the way, his eight years in the Gitmo prison awaiting trial, do not count one iota towards fulfilling his prison term. > > There are many reasons to be outraged by what’s happened to Khadr over the years. I will confine mine to the absolutely outrageous notion that a fifteen-year-old can not only bear criminal responsibility on par with an adult, but can be sentenced to a virtual lifetime of incarceration (48 years including pre-trial time in custody) for acts committed while he was a child by any definition - 15 years-old. The mind boggles that other minds could see fit to do this. His trial and sentence are even more unjustifiable and downright barbaric when one also recognizes that he was essentially brainwashed by his father and family to participate as he did. The kid never knew any other way to be. A double hit - the innocence of youth destroyed by an environment and upbringing that no child should have had to endure. > > Forty years in prison for a child! I don’t care that there was a plea deal about to be effected providing for a shorter sentence. It is staggering to acknowledge that anyone, let alone twelve senior military personnel, could recommend such a brutal sentence for a misled child. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-ridiculous-end-to-a-ridiculous-trial/559034.md?page=14)