Kids are not allowed to go to rated R movies by themselves, participate in elections or make many choices that affect their lives, yet they face adult punishment. It's not logical that a kid who does not have the same rights as adults is punished like adults when the legal system has already decided that kids are not responsible to handle many things on their own.

What makes the legal system contradict itself and say that minors are responsible enough to handle such things as life imprisonment? What makes adults believe that a 14-year-old boy can handle life in prison? This is the case of Lionel Tate, a 14-year-old boy convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. He killed Tiffany Eunick when he was just 12 by mimicking professional wrestling moves as seen on television.

Some grownups have difficulty grasping the concept of death. Should we really expect a 12- or even a 14-year-old to do so? After all, the law has already decided that minors are not capable of understanding less drastic things such as R rated movies. Lionel Tate has to understand that he took a life and what he did was wrong. But locking him up for life is not the way to do it. We have to look at what Lionel is going through. What happened was tragic for Lionel as well as Tiffany Eunick's family. He is the one who has to live with the pain of knowing that he took the life of a human being. He is the one who will spend the rest of his life dealing with that fact. Isn't that punishment enough? Being around serial killers, rapists and other hardened criminals will not help him in any way.
In cases like this it is hard to even blame anyone completely. Lionel is at fault, but not enough to spend his whole life in jail over a stupid, tragic mistake. His mom cannot be blamed; she cannot watch her son 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Parents get blamed too much for the things their children do. Even though they should be aware of the things their children do, they cannot watch them all the time or control them completely.

Could the ever-so-popular World Wrestling Federation be at least partially responsible for the tragic murder, as well as other reported injuries from people copying wrestling moves? Yes and no! Yes, because the WWF does not stress and push the message that the moves shown on its program should not be tried at home. The WWF has only a 30-second promo that airs two or three times during a two-hour show. Other programs such as Jackass (another TV show, on MTV, where stunts are displayed and sometimes mimicked by the public) have a warning aired at the beginning of the show, after every commercial break and at the end of the show. No, because the WWF is simply "entertainment" and not responsible for setting a good, clean example for their viewing public.

The only thing really at fault is the legal system. The legal system is what decided that a 14-year-old could no longer be helped. No one that young should be given up on. The system failed Lionel Tate by putting him away for life without the possibility of parole.