Larry King Case Study

On February 12, 2008, 15 year old Larry King was shot in the back of the head by 14 year old Brandon McInerney in a middle school classroom in Oxnard, California. King was sitting in his seat, completing his work, and McInerney shot him. Prior to the incident, McInerney expressed on many occasions to his peers that he disliked the compliments that King relayed to him on his physical appearance and also had a profound hatred for King’s feminine gender expression. King was kept on life support for two days and died of brain damage. The facts presented to me made it clear that McInerney should grow old in prison for such a violent and intentional crime, but sadly that is not the case. McInerney was sentenced to 21 years in prison and will be released in in his mid thirties. Larry King, however, is deceased and the school will not allow for a plaque to be put in front of a tree that was planted in his honor.

McInerney should have received a sentence that was more severe due to the violent nature of the crime. In my opinion, when handling juvenile court cases, intent and outcomes of the case should be key identifiers to determine if the case

What the people who were in support of McInerney did not fully take into account were the outcomes of the case. A student was brutally shot in the back of the head in front of all of his classmates by another classmate. There should have been a heavier analysis of all those that were affected by the crime and the malicious intent instead of focusing on the life of the murderer. There should also be a critical evaluation on how long that recovery process might take if there is even a recovery process at all. The focus should be on the victims of the crime instead of the comfort of the criminal, and that goes for any