I’ve been in Turbeville and Lee County Correctional Institute, a maximum-security state prison near Bishopville. They’re no place to spend your life. Every aspect of life is controlled, and when its not controlled you imagine what young, small white kid is going to have to deal with.
His mother abandoned him and his father was so strict it might be considered abusive. There was little family structure for this kid and he had problems because of it.
Here was a neglected overmedicated kid who did a horrible, horrible act, and now the rest of his life is going to defined by that moment until he dies, likely before his 60th birthday, a broken man.
If we send a 15 year old to prison for 30 years we are saying hope is dead. We are saying there is no hope for a productive life and you will only reach the outside world long after the passion and the vibrancy of your life has been used up between concrete block walls and razor-wire tipped fences.
To turn our backs on a troubled kid is to say no to hope, no to justice, no to rehabilitation, that’s not who we are as America. Christopher Pittman did a ghastly thing and yes he should be punished, but we must also leave room for hope, because without even a sliver of a brighter day a life is lost.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Douglas Mays
Court TV recently ran a for TV movie they made entitlted "The Exonerated". A very well made movie of the innocent held in prison for years before being proven innocent. A story derived from actual cases.
Could this be a case?....
2 - Al Barger
Damn that Zoloft gang! I hate when a big Zoloft tablet sneaks up behind you with a shotgun and blows your brains out.
They ought to get all those Zoloft's in jail before they kill again!
3 - Eric Olsen
thanks Matt, very sensitive presentation of a true tragedy all the wa yaround - why was he tried as an adult? He was 12, for God's sake
4 - Al Barger
If you're evil enough to shotgun your grandparents and burn their house down on them, then you need to be gone. It doesn't matter that he was 12- those folks are just as dead as if he were 50. Nor will "he was just a lad" or "he was high on Zoloft" be any comfort to the families of the next person he kills if he's ever let loose.
If he's this evil at age 12, what's he going to be once his balls drop?
5 - Aaman
He'll be zo low
6 - bhw
Sad, sorry story.
We're very hypocritical about the way we treat kids in this country. We don't want them to drink, smoke, have sex, decide what they learn in school, or god forbid, learn about homosexuality. They must be tested and monitored -- to the point that one school is famously putting ID tracking devices around students' necks. We keep very tight control on them in all aspects of their lives, giving them no freedom or responsibility because they're children after all and they need our protection.
Until they do something wrong. Then suddenly they're completely responsible for their actions and can be tried as adults for crimes committed before they're teenagers.
7 - DPasquin
The jury pool - like the DNA pool - must be mighty shallow in South Carolina. What kind of a system sends a 15 year old to prison with no hope of every getting out one day? A system with no mercy. And where mercy is lacking there is no heart. Just a few questions enter my mind, such as, did the kid have an attorney when he made his 'statement' at the time of arrest? was he on Zoloft and/or Paxil at the time of the alleged statement? Why did his lawyers stipulate that he commited the act and thereby cost the child any opportunity to see the light of day? (because they wanted to put Pharma Inc on trial - big $$$???)? If you watch the child on the videos they're showing on tv you can see he's remorseful. What sort of 'meanness, wickedness' lurks in the hearts of the jury and the grandstanding prosecutors? What civilized society tries children as adults, and when they're convicted sends them to adult prison? And let's not let the 'evil empire' of Pfizer off the hook. Just a little while ago they issued a press statement that acknowledged what a tragic series of events had occurred, but their product was blameless. Really? Tell that to the kid. Tell that to the families all over this country - o heck, the world - whose loved ones in the darkness of depression were prescribed Zoloft, or Prozac, or Paxil, or WellButrin or any of the whole class of SSRI antidepressants and committed suicide or murder. The whole phenomenon of road rage coincides with the introduction of this class of drugs in the early 1990's. The guy in Louisville who shot and killed anumber of colleagues at work, and then killed himself, he was the first, but not the last. One of the killers at Columbine had just started taking an SSRI antidepressant a few weeks prior to that unhappy incident. THe list goes on. And big Pharma Inc continues to line the pockets of politicians to protect their ever growing empire. George W. Bush has a plan to test every child in the country for mental illness, and his friends at Eli Lilly - makers of Prozac are behind him, providing the 'expertise' to medicate your child whether you like it or not. In Britain the water table is polluted with SSRI antidepressants - who needs the pills, just drink the water! No, Christopher Frank Pittman is a troubled KID, a child, not a man. He will get no mercy in South Carolina, or in any other state in these United States. Pfizer guarantees it (gotta protect the stockholders and executives). (By the way, I'm a mean spirited registered Republican - with no stock in any pharmaceutical company)
8 - DPasquin
"Damn that Zoloft gang! I hate when a big Zoloft tablet sneaks up behind you with a shotgun and blows your brains out."
What a brilliant assinine statement. Zoloft was never approved by the FDA for use by children. Family doctors - not psychiatrist - have been prescribing Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil to medicate kids with problems some adults don't want to deal with. One side effect of Zoloft is akathisia - a sensation describes wonderfully as thousands of of insects moving rapidly under your skin - there very skin you want to crawl, jump, or blow your brains out of. Don't make uneducated assinine statements. Go sit on the couch and have another Bud (i.e. go self medicate).
9 - RJ
The "Zoloft defense" reminds me of the "Twinkee defense."
IOW, it's bullshit.
This kid murdered two people. Not just any people, but his own flesh and blood.
Then he committed arson.
Then he stole a car.
But, hey. The bleeding hearts wanna welcome him back into the family of humanity, ASAP.
Well, NIMBY!
10 - bhw
All I've heard the "bleeding hearts" say is that 12-year-olds shouldn't be tried as adults.
And he *will* be released someday if he serves his sentences concurrently or gets paroled. What a gift he'll be then, after spending the rest of his childhood and all of his adulthood in prison.
11 - Big Time Patriot
What is the opposite of "bleeding hearts"? If you hate bleeding hearts, what kind of heart is it that you claim to have for yourself? Are you a proud "dried-up heart"? A "heart as hard as stone"?
Catch phrases are handy short hand sometimes, but sometimes the use of them indicates more about the speaker than those spoken of.
If you hate "bleeding hearts", what kinds of hearts do you prefer?
12 - roleft
I have hope....I hope that he never gets out to kill again. I hope that anyone, regardless of age, who savagely murders someone and then burns their house will be put UNDER that jail. I hope that this country will quit excusing heinous crimes under the guise of the killer being "a young kid", "only 12 years old", etc. I hope that this is the beginning of a trend of common sense and swift and complete punishment for killers.
13 - bhw
I never excused the crime.
And he will likely be getting out, possibly to kill again. You can pretty much guarantee that he won't receive proper medical treatment or rehabilitation during his 30-year sentence.
14 - Angela Chen Shui
Thanks, Matt. I watched Larry King's coverage of the breaking news of his conviction last night. I don't get how a 12 year old gets tried as an adult, nor the seeming lack of understanding on the part of the jurors of the effects the drug can have.
The juror who was interviewed interpreted the boy's seemingly genuine tears as 'tears being turned on and off for effect'.
Turns out his Zoloft prescription seems to have been INCREASED too.
The father said the defence team was good but I got the feeling the whole time through that they were a bit laid back on this one. While the State was busy objecting to everything they could, the defence's strategy was to lay out all the facts and hope that the jury would see things their way.
Will watch to see if they handle the appeal and if they mix in a good dose of passion to their defence.
Thanks again. Knew someone would cover it here... ;-)
15 - JaneinCanada
Some of the comments on here are really fucked up.
That poor kid, and I do really feel sorry for him, was very unfortunately born in the states.
If he'd been born in Canada, it would be a completely different story.
Health Canada, unlike the FDA, has aknowledged that SSRIs like Zoloft can children to be increasingly suicidal AND violent. The FDA will only admit to more suicidal.
Had he been living in Canada, he would have been tried under the Young Offenders Act, his name would not have been released in the media and his maximum sentence would have been two years in a youth correctional facility.
And yes prosecuters can ask for a young offender to be tried as an adult, but in this case I seriously doubt they would have.
I really don't see how you can say it would better serve society to lock this kid up than to get him the help he seriously needs.
If you ask me, the greater evil is jailing this child and personally, no wonder the United States is rated so poorly amongst developed countries for it's human rights.
16 - Terry Turner
Scientists at the FDA have accused their bosses of covering up data showing the link between antidepressants and teen suicides.
See: http://watchingwashington.blogspot.com/2004/09/depressing-news-from-washington.html
http://watchingwashington.blogspot.com/2004/09/tough-pill-for-big-pharma-to-swallow.html
I've not seen much research into "homicidal" behavior -- but it doesn't seem like it'd be much of a stretch.
It's frightening that big pharma's profits may have been placed ahead of the safety of this kid and his late grandparents.
17 - JR
RJ: This kid murdered two people. Not just any people, but his own flesh and blood.
Actually that's a mitigating factor. It'd be far more outraged if he came after my flesh and blood.
18 - Shark
Al Barger: "...If he's this evil at age 12, what's he going to be once his balls drop?"
His balls won't drop; he's on steriods, too.
PS: It's just too bad the Big Drug companies haven't invented a "compassion" pill.
(But then again, we couldn't despise the slobbering, unevolved troglodyte motards living in South gonna rise again Carolina.
...nevermind...
19 - Al Barger
Shark, I can see how you'd take it being his own family as a mitigating factor, but I don't. To me, the obvious way of seeing that is that if he's willing to do that to his OWN people, what would he be willing to do to the rest of us.
Call it lack of compassion on my part if you wish, but I'd just as soon none of us ever has to find out.
20 - Mike Kole
Now, how dare anybody badmouth the omnipotent FDA?! Let's get one thing straight: The FDA is a branch of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and therefore, always correct, never erring. Zoloft cannot possibly be the FDA's fault. It is impossible that the FDA would have winked at data, because they always do right. This has to be the solely the fault of a greedy pharmaceudical company.
At least, that's what so many people keep telling me.
21 - RJ
So, lemme get this straight.
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?
22 - Mike Kole
That's a good question you pose there, RJ, because then the big bad greedy pharmaceudical companies are out of the picture, and, the FDA isn't there to regulate crack.
23 - bhw
Lemme get this straight: you're equating the taking a medicine to treat a mental illness with the recreational use of an illegal drug?
I don't know if "Zoloft made him do it." I do know that he was already disturbed to be on Zoloft in the first place. I also know that he had recently been switched to Zoloft from another anti-depressant and that some young people actually have actually become suicidal AFTER starting to take Zoloft, rather than BEFORE. And that he was raised by an abusive father, who his grandfather had just threatened to return him to.
The kid shouldn't get away with murder. He should be tried as a KID and treated for his mental illness while he serves his time in the appropriate place for the appropriate length of time. There are a million mitigating circumstances in this case, which start with the key one that he was a fucking 12-year-old at the time of the crime.
24 - SFC SKI
I have to agree with BHW on this one.
If the suspect was an adult, I'd have a completely different take on this, though.
25 - bhw
SKI, I agree that the key factor is the kid's age. I also think that mental illness should factor into a jury's verdict with adults, as well, but that's another can of worms.
This jury has ignored ALL mitigating factors, which is astonishing and a very bad sign for our society.
As I originally said, we give our kids no freedom or responsibility in this country until they do something wrong. Then they're suddenly fit for treatment as an adult. Somehow, they've suddenly developed all the skills and faculties we've been telling them they don't have. So we only treat them as adults with the responsibilities of adults when they're in the court system. Outside of the court system, we need to protect them from SpongeBob music videos.
Makes no sense to me.