The two youngest individuals convicted of Murder:
The youngest to be executed for Murder
A fight over some strawberries that summer had prompted Hannah to kill 6-year-old Eunice Bolles, the daughter of a prominent New London family, historians say. The hanging is the last documented execution of a female in Connecticut. Hannah also bears the unfortunate distinction of being the youngest female ever put to death in this country, says a leading expert on the death penalty.
According to Streib’s research, an angry Hannah lured her young victim into a wooded area on July 21, 1786, by offering her a piece of calico. Once out of view, Hannah pummeled Eunice with a stone and strangled her to death. According to various historical accounts cited by Streib, she then covered the body with stones from a nearby wall to make Eunice’s death appear to be an accident.
Investigators arrested Hannah the next day. She burst into tears and confessed after being forced to view the young victim’s body.
According to the historical accounts, abandoned by her mother at an early age and believed to be retarded, Hannah seemed unconcerned about her fate during her trial. While spectators wept, the judge found the heinous nature of Hannah’s crime outweighed any mental incapacity.
“You have killed, and that in a barbarous and cruel manner, an innocent, helpless and harmless child,” said the judge, identified only as Judge Law in Streib’s published account of the case.
Hannah seemed unmoved about her death sentence until the day of her execution when a visitor informed her of her fate. Witnesses reported that Hannah said little as she stood on the scaffold awaiting her punishment. She “appeared greatly afraid and seemed to want somebody to help her.”
Lionel Tate, the youngest person to be convicted of Murder:
Lionel Alexander Tate (born January 30, 1987) is the youngest American citizen ever sentenced to life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole
In January 2001, when Tate was 13, he was convicted of first-degree murder
for the 1999 battering death of six-year-old Tiffany Eunick in Broward County, Florida
.
On July 28, 1999, Tate was left alone with Eunick, being babysat by Tate’s mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate. While the children were playing downstairs, Tate’s mother called to them to be quiet. Tate came up 45 minutes later to say that Eunick was not breathing. He said that while they were wrestling, he had her in a headlock and the child’s head hit a table. Although some considered this to be an accident, this was acknowledged as murder.
Reflection Assignment Instructions:
In previous chapters, we have read that people become victims because of routine activities and there are motivated offenders preying on those individuals. Now that you have read the youth’s stories, please answer the following questions with a short response. Did you recognize any similarities in their characteristics, parental absences, and ADA disabilities? Are youth victims? Or Motivated Offenders?
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