It's a story that made national and international headlines. Zachary Neagle, now 15 years old, was charged with shooting and killing his own father with a hunting rifle last year. He claimed he did it because he was being sexually abused, and he feared the same would happen to his little brother and sister. He told his attorney his father had been sexually abusing him since he was 8 years old.
This case ignited a lot of passion from the people here in the Treasure Valley. It seemed everyone had an opinion about it. Some thought the claims of sexual abuse justified his actions, others felt he had other options to seek help. Some weren't sure he was ever abused at all. One thing is for certain, the pictures of him shackled and in a prison uniform sparked a lot of debate:
His supporters rallied for him at the courthouse, and the prosecutor planned to charge him as an adult for the crime. But before it ever went to trial, Neagle pleaded guilty. Yesterday, he appeared before a judge in Canyon County for sentencing.
In a plea agreement with prosecutors, he was sentenced to seven years in the juvenile corrections system. He's already served a year of that. Then on his 21st birthday he'll go back in front of the Judge to see if he can go free on adult probation. At that time, the judge could either put him on probation or send him to prison.
So what do you think? Do you think the Zachary Neagle sentence is fair?
This case ignited a lot of passion from the people here in the Treasure Valley. It seemed everyone had an opinion about it. Some thought the claims of sexual abuse justified his actions, others felt he had other options to seek help. Some weren't sure he was ever abused at all. One thing is for certain, the pictures of him shackled and in a prison uniform sparked a lot of debate:
His supporters rallied for him at the courthouse, and the prosecutor planned to charge him as an adult for the crime. But before it ever went to trial, Neagle pleaded guilty. Yesterday, he appeared before a judge in Canyon County for sentencing.
In a plea agreement with prosecutors, he was sentenced to seven years in the juvenile corrections system. He's already served a year of that. Then on his 21st birthday he'll go back in front of the Judge to see if he can go free on adult probation. At that time, the judge could either put him on probation or send him to prison.
So what do you think? Do you think the Zachary Neagle sentence is fair?
I find it odd that women are thought of as heroes if they kill a rapist, but young boys who do not have the maturity or brain development necessary to make adult decisions are routinely railroaded into long prison terms, sometimes without even a chance at parole, because society is angry that these young victims couldn't just put up with being raped, beaten, or sexually tortured any longer than they did.
ReplyDeleteIf society was serious about reducing the incidence of teenagers who kill we would severely restrict access to handguns, which juveniles obviously are not mature-enough to handle in a responsible manner, especially when faced with ongoing violent abuse and the resultant intense feelings, which most adults have long learned to control. Male juvenile abuse victims often have no place to turn with their issues either, as often such accusations are not believed even when they have been made, and juvenile male abuse recovery resources are lacking too.
In my own case now 38 years ago, I ran away from a violent abuser that my parents had placed me with, after I had been having issues with repeated earlier abuse at age 16. For 10 days I was beaten and sexually assaulted every night, then on my first day of high school in Chester, VT, in January of 1974, I ran away during the lunch hour and tried to hitchhike to my uncle's house in Massachusetts.
After getting two rides to a point 15 miles away, the VT Highway Patrol picked me up and returned me to the Chester barracks where I related my sordid story, which for whatever reason they didn't believe, and an hour later my abuser showed-up and the Patrol gave me back to him for another 36 hours of savage sexual and physical torture before my aunt arrived to take me home the next day. In fact, there have been many too many juvenile abuse victims who have tried often repeatedly to reach out for help and their attempts have been rebuffed due to not being believed.
This kid ought to be rewarded as a hero for putting an end to a violent felon who thought nothing of repeatedly sexually assaulting his own children, and who knows how many other young victims too. In fact, studies show that by the time the average pedophile is caught, there are well over 10 victims, and some pedophiles have had hundreds of victims too.
Yes, I will agree that this kid and his siblings will need a lot of help to undo the damage that has been done to them, and I could maybe see a year or two in intensive inpatient child abuse victim treatment instead of a violent criminal conviction and jail time myself.
This kid does not belong in prison, period. Our practice of charging kids as adults is legalized wanton child abuse, plain and simple. We are the only country in the world which seeks such serious penalties from our own children, a policy denounced the world over as a serious human rights violation.
This post was made by one of Oprah Winfrey's 200 adult survivors of childhood violent physical, emotional, and repeated sexual abuse, who were invited to Chicago to share our own stories filled with great despair, terrible crippling shame, absolutely zero self-esteem, our issues of acting-out and abusing ourselves, our lifelong struggles with substance abuse addiction, PTSD and dissociation, and other forms of self-abuse such as cutting or burning ourselves, trying to punish ourselves or have some control over our own bodies.
The terrible struggle that victims of violent child abuse face to free themselves from their abusive victimization is a process which in some cases has taken 20-30 years or more or therapy and group support.
Yes, this kid belongs in a protective and nurturing environment where he can begin to deal with his issues and rebuild his fragile self-esteem, in the hope that he can enjoy the same kind of freedom from his past that it took me almost 50 years to find myself. This kid has an excellent chance at a full recovery if he is not further brutalized in our search for "justice".
Trucker51 @ Male Survivor.org