Lionel Tate Case: Minors Charged/Convicted as Adults?

[Gods Ivy]

Tate faced a life sentence once before, after he was convicted of murdering 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick in 1999. His attorneys initially said he accidentally killed the girl while imitating pro wrestling moves. The case made Tate the youngest person in modern U.S. history to receive a life term, but the conviction was later overturned, and he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Tate, now 19, had agreed to plead guilty in March in the holdup of a food delivery man in exchange for a sentence of 10 to 30 years, but he then asked to withdraw the plea by claiming in a handwritten letter to Lazarus he didn't comprehend what he was doing.

On Thursday psychologist Donna Weiss testified that Tate, now 19, claimed he has suffered "nightmares and flashbacks" from abuse at the hands of his mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, that began at about age 2 and continued to age 12. Tate says one episode when he was about 10 left him with a broken wrist.

Weiss, who examined Tate for 1 1/2 hours on April 11, said Tate could suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome or "a variety of mental illnesses" as a result. But, Weiss said, Tate also appeared able to understand legal proceedings and their consequences and to assist his lawyers in mounting a defense.

Lazarus said he "had heard nothing" from Weiss and two other court-appointed psychologists to indicate that Tate was mentally incompetent.

Grossett-Tate, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, declined to speak to reporters after the hearing. Her attorney, Michael Hursey, did not immediately respond to a telephone call seeking comment about the abuse allegations.

Lazarus had found Tate competent once before. In December, Tate wrote to the judge that he was "hearing voices" and had contemplated suicide; he later admitted faking mental illness and said the letter was written for him by another jail inmate.

Should they have let him out??? Was he rehabilitated?