Brown was just 11, a chubby schoolboy, when he allegedly shot Kenzie Houk, then eight months pregnant, in the back of the head in February 2009 in her rural home northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors allege that the boy waited until his father left for work that Friday morning before entering Houk's bedroom and shooting her with a 20-gage shotgun.

After that, prosecutors say, he went to school, dropping the spent cartridge outside and leaving Houk's daughter, aged four, to discover the grisly scene.

Last year, a local judge ruled that Brown should stand trial as an adult for what is being considered the double murder of Houk and her near full-term baby son.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110125/ts_alt_afp/uscrimejusticechildren_20110125230030

If he stands trial as a juvenile, he will be free at age 21. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are deeply troubled if he stands trial as an adult, he will never be a free man. Thus, the cruel & unusual punishment argument for a crime when committed as a child. This is assuming he did not comprehend what he was doing at the time.

My take is, he stands trial as an adult, he serves time in juvenile hall until age 21, then life in prison with eligibility for parole after 25 years.

Of course, my take is not justice. He took the life of his stepmother by blowing her brains out of her face with a 20 gauge shotgun shell to the back of the head. Furthermore and even more disgusting, his murder of her meant the death of her unborn child. Many would say he killed an adult and child. Thus forth, for the heinous crime he committed he should be sentenced to death.

Whatever the outcome, I get a creepy feeling just looking at the picture of the kid. My instincts tell me right away this kid is downright evil and will never be a productive member of US society.

just hang that kid. the government needs to man up and not waste jail space

He should be tried as an adult. According to that story he clearly planned everything in advance. And planning a murder with a big gun is nothing a "child" should be capable of.

Well, I didn't include in the process of deciding whether to try him as an adult or juvenile, his defense has argued the process is violating his 5th Amendment Rights of freedom from self-incrimination.

Basically, the State of Pennsylvania when it comes to capital murder as this case is the accused is automatically tried as an adult. However, his defense has challenged this before the case has begun.

The catch is that in order to try a juvenile as a juvenile, they have to show remorse for the crime, which any good defense lawyer will drag up in the appeals process of violating 5th Amendment Rights. The process in determining whether this kid should be tried as an adult or juvenile, the defense would claim inherently violates the 5th Amendment because having to display remorse implies self-incrimination and guilt.

The kid has shown no remorse and insists he did not commit the crime. Sounds like an adult to me.

I wonder what made him hate his stepmother so much.

I say capital punishment should be employed.

send him for electric chair or whatever they use in that state.

The level of planning in this case suggests to me that he should be tried as an adult. What's more I think people look far too softly on these children. Children nowadays are becoming more and more adult-like in everything but responsibility and reasoning. 

It has always been this way, especially in the past when life expectancy was lower. The whole "nowadays" thing is just a myth.

OT: It's not cruel and unusual punishment. The fact that he's a kid shouldn't excuse this behaviour. He should rott in jail. It's only fair.

Wow, quite a few opinions. As for the premeditation, I do not know if it was there and won't know come his trial. It could be that he was showing his stepmother his new gun and the gun accidentally went off.

I say try him as an adult because anyone tried for a crime where the victims are a pregnant woman and her unborn child is not just a run of the mill bad kid who needs some rough time in juvie to set him straight.