15 year old Christopher Pittman killed his grandparents, now he likely lost the rest of his life.
South Carolina juries are fickle things. During my days with The ItemI once watched a jury of 12 men and women in Bishopville convict a man of murder with no physical evidence, no weapon and the only thing linking the man to the shoot was the testimony of one man, who as the defense pointed out “If (the convict) didn’t do it, he did.”…
Article comments
26 - Matt Schafer
"A 12 year old can slaughter a few family members, commit arson, steal a car, and when he's caught, he's issued a "Get Out Of Jail Free Card" simply because he was on fucking Zoloft???
If he was on crack instead, which is obviously a more powerful drug, would your hearts bleed as much for this youthful murderer?"
I think this is a pretty typical response from people who don't work with kids and don't understand developmental psychology. The short of it is that kids are screwed up. I was screwed up when I was a kid and so was everyone else.
When you take a motherless child with some emotional problems and over-medicate him what are we to expect?
I'm not saying we should hand him a get out of jail free card, but a 12 year old is not accountable for his actions the same way a 24 year old is, and never should have been tried as an adult.
27 - Al Barger
I'm not even concerned about some abstract idea of "justice" or "accountability" here. Nor do I care about his rough childhood.
What I DO care about is protecting the rest of us from this psycho. He's screwed up bad enough that he can never be trusted to be out amongst us ever, ever again.
I'm not real big on the death penalty, but it would be a mercy killing to take this kid out. He's already ruined, and not fit for society.
28 - bhw
Dr. Al, do me a favor. If you ever get called for jury duty, remember to answer every question posed to you with, "I'm not real big on the death penalty, but it would be a mercy killing to take this kid out. He's already ruined, and not fit for society."
That'll get you out of duty and maybe give some poor sod a chance at a fair trial.
Everybody wins!
29 - Al Barger
BHW, in what way would I not give a fair trial? If there was any doubt about his actual guilt, I'd be scrupulous in expecting proof.
Am I unfair to value the security of the whole community over looking for excuses to exonerate a psycho killer?
When Rose and Valerie screaming from the gallery eventually convince some judge to turn the excitable boy loose, we can all feel good about being fair and understanding. Not that this will do any good for the families of his next victims.
30 - Rodney Welch
What this boy did was unconscionable. That does not make him beyond redemption. Al's just wallowing in his own nihilism.
31 - Al Barger
Nihilism? What a load of crap. I'm not at all nihilistic.
I am, however, reality based. Your wishful thinking about "redemption" is all well and fine. It's possible that he'd straighten out and never act in a violent manner again. I'm just not willing to expose my people to him as some cheesy act of faith in someone who has shotgunned his own grandparents.
Perhaps we could release this boy into YOUR custody, Rodney. He could come stay with you or BHW, cause the little bitch ain't going to be welcome in Franklin County. We'll leave YOUR grandparents to babysit him.
32 - Eric Olsen
I heard a very convincing report saying that the brain simply isn't finished developing until around 14 - that nothing done before that age should ever be equated with the behavior and culpability of an adult. Try him as a mentally ill 12 year-old who committed heinous acts and treat accordingly - pretty simple and straightforward
33 - bhw
You're unfair, Al, because you would never consider any mitigating factors, which as a juror, you would be required to do. You dismiss all mitigating factors immediately. You're supposed to go in with an open mind about the evidence, and let's face it, yours is closed on this one.
And as for sending the kid to my house, I don't understand why you can't understand that I think he needs to be treated and rehabilitated: aka, he needs to be locked up while this happens.
He *will* be released some day. And my guess is that he'll come out worse than when he went in since he'll be in for so long and eventually among adults.
34 - Rodney Welch
Al, you'd have more fun killing him than I would raising him, that's for sure. Given the tone of your posts, I think you and this boy may have a lot in common in that regard.
Saying "He's already ruined, and not fit for society" is PURE nihilism. Who are you, Al? God? You can peer deep inside this kid's brain and say whether there's anything of value there? I don't trust your judgment. I think he ought to be punished, of course, and kept from society, but I'd prefer to leave your own fantasies locked safely inside your head.
35 - Al Barger
Yeah Rodney, bullshit on your cheap and patently dishonest ad hominem. I'd take no joy in killing anyone. Nonetheless, there are those who need to be put down like rabid dogs. There's no "fantasy" going on in my head.
The fantasy is your ridiculous expectation that I should put some kind of faith in the redemption of someone who shotgunned two of his grandparents and burnt the house down on them.
I don't care if there's anything you might deem to be of value in this boy, he's done screwed the pooch. There's no value this boy might someday show that's worth the obvious risk of him doing more of what he's already done.
It's a perfectly perverse liberal inversion of any idea of being connected to reality that the murderer is a poor, misunderstood victim while the people who don't want him let loose to do more damage become the bloodthirsty monsters.
36 - Rodney Welch
Which is it, Al? First you say it's a "mercy-killing" because he's irredeemable; now you say you don't care if he's redeemable.
I never said he was poor and misunderstood. I think he's completely wrong -- AND, keep in mind, I don't blame Zoloft at all. I hold to the view that the law should only be concerned with normal persons, and if most people who take Zoloft don't commit murder then we can't really blame the drug. I think the kid is totally, 100 percent at fault. I just don't believe in trying children as adults, or killing them, good as it might feel.
37 - Al Barger
I'm saying that I consider him irredeemable. He might have some good qualities, or perhaps develop some- but they won't be enough to justify the obvious risk of him doing more of what he's already done.
And again with the slander, accusing me of a bloodlust that I simply don't feel.
38 - RJ
"The short of it is that kids are screwed up. I was screwed up when I was a kid and so was everyone else."
Bingo. And yet I never slaughtered my own flesh and blood. Nor did I commit arson or steal any cars.
Because of this, I'm not in jail. And because this little punk DID commit those crimes listed above, he IS in jail...
39 - mrbenning
I don't think the kid should be put down, but I do find it interesting that, while he was tried as an adult, he wasn't given the death penalty.
40 - Rodney Welch
My immediate thought is to say that people respond to the idea of executing a teenage killer more in theory than in practice. But people have been executed in Christopher Pittman's home state -- which is also mine -- for horrendous crimes committed before they were adults. Despite pleas from the Pope and Jimmy Carter, a borderline retarded youth named James Terry Roach was executed in 1986 for his part in the rape and/or murder of a teenage couple in 1977, when he was 17. You can read his Supreme Court appeal for stay of execution here.
41 - Rodney Welch
Scratch that -- try this link.
42 - Eric Olsen
but 17 isn't 12 - that's the main issue here for me; as I mentioned before, studies show that the brain isn't fully developed until around 14 and until then it simply doesn't function like that of an adult. Add to that the mental illness, the Zoloft, which was prescribed, and trying and convicting him for this as an adult is a travesty
43 - Rodney Welch
I understand, Eric. I'm merely pointing out a precedent for anyone interested.
44 - Eric Olsen
I know - just restating my opinion of the whole thing. SOMETHING has to be done, obviously, and I don't care if they electroshock him for the next 20 years if that straightens him out and protects society, but trying him as an adult is simply contrary to reality and a glaring injustice.
45 - SRF
Who are we to judge? no one knows if this human being will or will not change, but we as a society need to help him and when we get to the root of where and why it not only helps the child it helps us to understand why a child would do this. He needs mental help not ADULT prison help.The TEN COMMANDMENTS say: shall not kill, and shall not commit adultry, so should we kill CLINTON also? Killing someone is NOT acceptable and I don't condone it, but I believe everyone deseves a chance to change, and to receive the appropriate help, and by putting a child in an adult prison is not helping anyone,he needs to be locked up but not with adults.
46 - mrbenning
"The TEN COMMANDMENTS say: shall not kill, and shall not commit adultry, so should we kill CLINTON also?"
There is a big difference between throwing the kid in prison and killing him.
"...he needs to be locked up but not with adults."
I agree with you there. I'm not sure where he's going to be, but I hope it's a maximum security prison because a 15 year old will surely end up fish food for the pirahnas anywhere else.
Just to throw some more evidence in, here's a few quotes from abcnews.go.com:
Prosecutor Barney Giese said the real motivation for the crime was the boy's anger at his grandparents for disciplining him for choking a younger student on a school bus. And he reminded jurors how the boy carried out the killings shooting his grandfather in the mouth and his grandmother in her head while both lay sleeping.
"I don't care how old he is. That is as malicious a killing a murder as you are ever going to find," the prosecutor said. He pointed to Pittman's statement to police in which he said his grandparents "deserved it."
Remember that I think the kid should be punished, but I also think an adult prison, at this point, would be a disasterous place and negate any chance of true rehabilitation.
47 - Angela Chen Shui
Thanks. Re-reading this early this morning triggered a blog entry and a 'review' here.
48 - Angela Chen Shui
Sorry. Wanted to link the above, but don't know how to from this comment section.
The review is at: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/20/153505.php
49 - DrPat
Angela, your article is now linked.
50 - Angela Chen Shui
Thanks. :-)
51 - Ian
The kid obviously had problems from the reported abuse of his father and abandonment from his mother, both of which are factors that can severely affect the development of children, altering the child's conception of right and wrong. Locking him away for 30 years won't make it better. If he does get out, then he'd be a much worse person than he is now. He needs proper medical and psychological treatment, or at least an attempt at that before you can cast him off as "unsalvagable."
What he did was wrong, and while the drugs didn't kill his grandparents, the fact that he was 80 pounds (or so someone said), 12 years old, and taking a POWERFUL drug that wasn't indicated for people under 18, which has been known to cause suicidal tendencies and mania/hypomania... well, let's just say his state of mind could have been altered, so if he was angered and in a manic state, he would be less likely to be able to control himself.
Don't tell me that you're sure he would have been capable of doing this if he hadn't been prescribed the drug. I've taken two different prescriptions for treatment of depression, and I know they alter personalities. Greatly.
Basically, letting him go free or locking him up are two excessively simple resolutions to this issue. It's not so black and white, it never is.
52 - Bonnie
Al, you wouldn't know reality if it hit you in the face. Unmarried, childless, you are clueless about what it's like raising children, because you have none, you stand a typical know-it-all libertarian. You know less about 12 year-olds, and less about any of the facts of this case than you do about Skippy peanut butter. You’re typical of people who know nothing about nothing and like making a lot of noise. Grow up and get a life. People like you are more dangerous than a 12 year old intoxicated with antidepressants and a loaded shotgun. Ever hear of Akathisia? It's what triggered the episode. He's not a psycho. Be quiet for once, read and listen, you man learn something that might actually turn you into a human being.
http://www.breggin.com/31-49.pdf
To learn more about the ChrisPittmanSupporters group, please visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChrisPittmanSupporters
53 - Nancy
I wonder if the jury and the prosecuator has anything to say now that we have kid after kid killing parents, classmates, etc and mothers are strangling, drowning, killing, cutting up their own children, etc, after they have been put on psychotropic drugs. Granted not everyone does this, but it only takes one person to kill you or your child, doesn't it? If this young man would have been checked into a bit more thoroughly with the "slight possibility" that the drug may have induced the murders, think how many individuals would be still alive? Of course the drug companies wouldn't be as rich, but HEY...isn't this America? This is where money matters more than our children or the truth. The long arm of the FDA and the drug companies goes a long way, and they really don't care who gets in their way ... especially a young 15 year old boy.
54 - Janet
I just returned from a 3 day rally in Washington DC on the SSRI issues, and met many people with stories that you could not imagine. Ones that would leave you speechless.I met one of the kids from Columbine , he was shot 13 times and filed a lawsuit against pfizer on behalf of the boy that shot him and then killed himself. While there I was introduced to an internal document from the clincal trials by pfizer back in 1983, guess what folks they knew then that these drugs caused suicide and HOMOCIDAL tendencies in children , but did not release the information, This document was hand delivered to certain congressmen and now soon the truth will be coming out about these drugs.
Also while there I hand delivered a bill on juvenile justice reform putting protections in place for first offending children, one ammendment is that no child while under a mind altering prescription drug may be charged as an adult under mandatory sentencing guidelines please read this bill and petition , sign and pass it on if you agree.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/429258617?ltl=1114901126
or google Christopher bill
55 - Melanie
Chris never denied the fact that he was guilty. I think that if we as American's do not have compassion, then what hope does this country have? Chris was 12 years old at the time of the crimes. Please visit the FDA web-site and read all about the thousands of other families whose lives have been demolished because of these drugs. It is astonishing that the public has not been made aware of the dangers. We are quick to condem a child, without all of the facts. The U.S. is the only country that has not acknowledged the dangers of these SSRI's. They not only cause suicide, but also homicide. Read up! Europe and Canada seem to care about their people, and not so much about how much money they are making. How many more people need to die before American's wake up? This is one small 12 year old...but there are many,many more. And we,as American's just sat back and watched as this 12 year-old's life was finished off. Next time it could be your child, and I'm sure that you'll appreciate all of the negative comments about locking them away forever. It will mean something then...it always does when it's your own child.
56 - Anne
IF the child had "been on crack" at the age of 12, at least there would have been no problem understanding that his sense of reality would have been distorted by a drug induced state of mind where anything appears real at the time, however illogical. What people would have thought of a 12 year old TAKING crack would be a different issue entirely. But the drug influence itself would not be under question.
Little Christopher Pittman though did NOT take crack. He was prescribed a drug that is chemically similar to, and can have the same effect as, cocaine but he took it not only because he was a child and even adults trust their doctors, but because he was prescribed it under the label of MEDICATION.
The last thing he needs is "treatment". He WAS 'treated' - with a substance that may as well have been crack and without having had that treatment we wouldn't be discussing him online because it wouldn't have happened.
Why is it so easy to blame the person given powerful mind altering drugs ....... and so hard to accept that JUST MAYBE these drugs are promoted and prescribed for another reason than the good of the recipient?
Could it be that those drugs make $ billions for the manufacturers and quite a lucrative amount for anyone else who will assist them in their promotion (from scientists and psychiatrists to teachers and reps - greed pays well and wanting 'more' is a failing we all give in to sometimes, but most of us not at the cost of the lives of others)?
Drugs that make even more for the manufacturers than 'illegal' mind altering drugs make for 'illegal' drug dealers?
Is it maybe because we as adults prefer to have access to hand for mind altering substances - despite our yelling to youngsters "JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS"?
Maybe its easier to justify our own weaknesses by blaming children for 'their' actions when those drugs cause havoc, in the same way as the illegal drugs would and do?
And why do we more harshly criticise children and expect more of them than of adults? Is that because by being harder on CHILDREN we can internally bury the fact that although we were once children, when we become adults we fail them so badly and so often? Rather like we fail the elderly in so many ways?
I found this today. Makes me wonder just who are the worst drug dealers in our society.
57 - jigger
Its two years later and for those who take the time to watch what happens we now have two years more information on the behaviour of drug companies. Two years more experience on non-disclosure of documents, two years more of watching pharma companies getting criminally indicted for off label promotion, hiding information etc.
Two years more of medications that were passed as safe being removed from the market. Two years more of black label warnings being put on drugs - mostly due to pressure and exposure being put on the FDA and drug companies by people who care about life and want the facts out in the open.
Two years of watching corruption, greed, lies, litigation.
And yet DESPITE these two additional years of knowledge and information - enough people are so uninformed that they do nothing to enforce scientific integrity, nothing to relate children like Christopher to DOCUMENTED side effects to ensure the protection of children, nothing to bring the corrupt (ADULTS) to justice, that this is still a problem.
The blame for it all lies on people, without the apathy, lack of understanding and lack of compassion of masses of people, the pharmaceutical industry, the industry psychiatrists, the regulators, could NOT carry on the farce as they do.
The results are their doing, but the fault lies with all of us who are can't be bothered to do anything to correct it or can't be bothered to use that brain to work it out.
How much is it going to take, how many suicides, homicides, cardiac arrests, diabetes onsets and various other adverse effects is it to take before THE PEOPLE stand up together and say STOP, which is the only thing that can and will stop it all?
Is it because so many people enjoy having legal mind altering drug easily accessible that they'd rather children die of physical side effects, or psychological side effects such as suicide or others get imprisoned for life due to drug induced homicide, than act like adults should and protect the young BEFORE our own wish for an easy drug way out?
Shame on us, the human race, top of the food chain and too lazy and self interested to protect our children from the bigger predators amongst us.