CNN) — It began as horseplay, with two teenage stepbrothers chasing each other with blow guns and darts. But it soon escalated when one of the boys grabbed a knife.
Quantel Lotts is shown at age 12, two years before he committed the crime that sent him to prison for life.
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The older teen, Michael Barton, 17, was dead by the time he reached the hospital. The younger boy, Quantel Lotts, 14, would eventually become one of Missouri’s youngest lifers.
Lotts was sentenced in Missouri’s St. Francois County Circuit Court in 2002 to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder in his stepbrother’s stabbing death.
It made no difference that at the time of the deadly scuffle, Lotts was barely old enough to watch PG-13 movie and too young to drive, vote or buy beer.
“They locked me up and threw away the keys,” Lotts, now 23, said from prison. “They took away all hope for the future.”
Lotts is one of at least 73 U.S. inmates — most of them minorities — who were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison for crimes committed when they were 13 or 14, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization in Alabama that defends indigent defendants and prisoners.
The 73 are just a fraction of the more than 2,000 offenders serving life sentences for crimes they committed as minors under the age of 18.
Across the country, most juvenile offenders and many adults are given a second chance. Charles Manson, convicted in seven notorious murders committed when he was 27, will be eligible for his 12th parole hearing in 2012. He’s been denied parole 11 times. Even “Son of Sam” killer David Berkowitz, who confessed to killing six people in the 1970s when he was in his 20s, has had four parole hearings, though he has said he doesn’t deserve parole and doesn’t want it.
But Quantel Lotts has no hope for a parole hearing. At least not yet
Lotts is part of a trend that has developed over the past two decades. Numerous studies have shown that In the 1970s and 1980s, minors were rarely given life sentences, let alone life without parole, experts said. By the early 1990s, according to the Department of Justice, an alarming spike in juvenile homicides spawned a nationwide crackdown, including a movement to try kids in adult courts.
“Criminal court doesn’t care they are kids,” said Melissa Sickmund, chief of systems research at the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “Once they are there, it’s just another case.”
Today, there are only a handful of states — including Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Oregon — that prohibit sentencing minors to life without parole, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Proponents of the strict sentencing laws said public safety should be top priority. They argued that judges give certain criminals, regardless of their age, life sentences because the crimes are so abhorrent.
“There are some people who are so fundamentally dangerous that they can’t walk among us,” said Jennifer Jenkins, who co-founded the National Organization for Victims of Juvenile Lifers. The Illinois-based group fights legislation that would remove sentences of life without parole.
In the past three years, attorneys at the Equal Justice Initiative have appealed cases involving 13- and 14-year-old offenders in state and federal court. Attorneys argue that the sentences are “cruel and unusual punishment” given the tender years of the offenders.
Only 19 states punish children under 14 with life sentences without parole, according to a study conducted by the center.
Last week, the state of Missouri dismissed Quantel Lotts’ case in St. Francois County Circuit Court. The Equal Justice Initiative will challenge the decision in the Missouri Court of Appeals. A separate petition, filed in 2007, is pending in federal court in the Eastern District of Missouri.
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7 users commented in " Quantel Lotts, locked up for life since the age of 14 without a second chance "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYeah, I don’t think this is a fair situation for Lott. He’s not even able to have a HEARING to decide if he gets parole, but Charles Manson does?? That doesn’t make sense at all.
Bad lawyering. This was not a first degree murder case. The prosecutor really ought to feel a sense of shame, as should the judge and the jurors who erroneously convicted the boy. It sounds like manslaughter, pure and simple. There was a fight and scuffle between two boys and the bigger and stronger of the two wound up dead. Manslaughter – not murder – any idiot could see that. This is so often true in these cases with kids who lack funds for decent representation – no one checks on their cases the way that famous people like Ted Stevens’ cases get scrutinized.
The real issue is not about race. Anyone who tries to make it about race is interjecting their own racist attitudes into a tragic situation and detracting from the real issue. You can spin it in any direction you want to but on the bottom line it’s about whether Quantel received a sentence that was appropriate for the TOTALITY of the circumstances. It’s a no-brainer! OF COURSE NOT! I’m not saying that out of any sense of compassion for Quantel as much as I’m saying that out of a sense of passion for the concept of justice. It’s something a lot of people NEVER learn and our criminal justice system can’t seem to get right either. If a 14 year old commits a cold blooded, premeditated murder, hold him accountable. Throw away the key.The mitigating factor of age should keep him or her from getting EXECUTED not INCARCERATED. There are different degrees of taking someones life and there are aggravating and mitigating factors within those degrees. 14 or 44, black or white; that’s what you use as determining factors. Is age a mitigating factor? OF COURSE IT IS! Is cold blooded murder an aggravating factor? OF COURSE IT IS! But if you’re going to give a 14 year old slack ONLY because of their age then you have to give the 44 year old who has the emotional developement of a teenager the same slack. That opens up a BIG can of worms. Justice calls for a case by case assessment irrespective of race OR age!
Life?
Good!
He killed another human being.
May he rot in hell.
Having worked in juvenile corrections for many years, I got the opportunity to see what life is like on the inside for juvenile offenders. Many times the children came from broken homes with no structure, morals, or ethics being infused into their lives. They barely had schooling (because they chose not to go, and were not forced to go), and no role models. Early childhood and adolesence are the critical years for when children should be learning basics such as right from wrong and things of the such. It was depressing to look at the statistics of repeat offenders we had, especially when our mission statement commanded us to rehabilitate those children. Not only are parents failing, but teachers, and the State and Federal Institutions also fail to do their part in coaching these children and reprimanding them when wrong.
At no point am I condoning murder, but after reading this brief article in which we’re missing key details, my mind wanders to how this young man could receive life in prison without the possibility of parole, when they were both mutually hoarse-playing (doesn’t seem pre-meditated). Not only that, but reading (again a brief description), of this childs history, it doesn’t sound like growing up, he received the fundamental values that are essential, so he views on fact and fiction became skewed. He may not have a diagnosable mental disability, but its a fact that socially he is crippled by the environment that he called home for so long. That fact should have definitely been considered by the judge and jury during his trial. He probably had a public defender, who had no major stake in winning his case, there for, wasn’t inclined to have Lott’s best interest at heart anyway.
Finally, this country is in a terrible financial situation. The cost to care for someone for LIFE, is tremendous. After all, they get food, housing, schooling, and medical attention all at the cost of the tax payer, for LIFE…it sounds like a free ride, which is unfair on my pocket, considering I didn’t commit the crime. The problem lies within the judicial system and the rehabilitation process, there are ways to prepare children and non-violent offenders to re-enter society so that they can be productive.
WELL I DONT THINK ITS RIGHT HE NOT GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE HE MAD A MISTAKE LIKE ALOT OTHER KIDS BUT FOR THIS REASON HE GET LIFE IN PRISON AND SOME KIDS GO TO JUVENILE CAMP OR WHAT NOT THIS IS REALLY SAD HE SHOULD GET A SECOND CHANCE.
BUT IF THIS CHILD DO GET OUT HE WANT HAVE A NORMAL LIFE HE WILL HAVE MENTAL PROBLEM’S
I PRAY FOR THIS CHILD AND HIS FAMILY BECAUSE ITS REALLY SAD HOW THEY GOING ABOUT THIS..
he deserves to be locked up for a long time. yea he was raised bad but that does not mean you can kill someone now that michael is dead he will never know what the future holds. where Quantel will get to know. i think he should be in prison till he is elder. there is still no excuse with what he had done and i am glad he has to deal with the regret of killing his step brother. and this is why parents need to be there
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