Is an underage murderer any better than an adult murderer? Robert “Yummy” Sandifer was an 11-year-old boy who was hired as a hitman for the Black Disciples (BDs). He was abused by his mother and had a mostly absent father. Stationed in Chicago, the BDs are a religious-esque rebel gang that split off from their now-rivals, the Gangster Disciples (GDs). Yummy was tasked with shooting some of the members of the GD. While he managed to hit and wound two members, a stray bullet killed a 14-year-old innocent bystander named Shavon Dean. Yummy went into hiding, but out of fear that Yummy would give himself up to the police, the other BDs decided to keep him quiet. In an event that made the gang incredibly infamous, BD member Cragg Hardaway (16) executed …show more content…
This use of pathos might change how one perceives the incident, making Yummy’s actions appear justifiable. There is a second article titled “11-year-old ‘Yummy’ Sandifer was on the run for killing a teenage girl”. Then he was killed by his own gang in a Chicago story that shocked the nation 25 years ago” from the same news source as the last article. As its name suggests, it tells Yummy’s story and the effect gang violence has on children. The article includes a small detail about Yummy’s nickname and a quote when it states “Yummy, a nickname he got for his love of sweets, had been shot twice in the back of the head. “I completely lost it,” the neighbor later said. “All I could think of was I almost saved this kid’s life.” The article tries to make the audience sad and disheartened by Yummy’s execution. That in itself also tries to make the audience against the BDs and gang violence itself. Bias, or favoritism, is present in vast amounts in the media and is no exception to true …show more content…
The quote is as follows, “‘What you've got here is a kid who was made and turned into a sociopath by the time he was three years old.’ Yummy's mother Lorina called him, without irony, ‘an average 11-year-old.’ The court's cops, probation officers, and psychologists who tracked his criminal career all agree. ‘I see a lot of Roberts,’ says Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Sumner, who handled charges against Yummy for armed robbery and car theft. ‘We see this 100 times a week,’ says Murphy.” This causes the audience to think less of Yummy’s case as it occurs many times where he’s from. It intentionally downplays the case by making it look like it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. The same article mentions how parents took their children to Yummy’s funeral, even if they hadn’t met him. It describes that “...the mothers of Chicago's South Side brought their children to a vigil for a dead boy they had never met. They wanted their kids to see the scrawny corpse in the loose tan suit lying in a coffin, next to his stuffed animals, finally
Many people say that the systems first priority should be to protect the public from the juvenile criminals that are a danger to others. Once the juveniles enter the system there is however, arguments on what should be done with them. Especially for those deemed too dangerous to be released back to their parents. Some want them locked away for as long as possible without rehabilitation, thinking that it will halt their criminal actions. One way to do this they argue would be to send them into an adult court. This has been a large way to reform the juvenile system, by lowering the age limits. I believe in certain cases this is the best method for unforgiving juveniles convicted of murder, as in the case of Ronald Duncan, who got away with a much lesser sentence due to his age. However another juvenile, Geri Vance, was old enough to be sent into the adult court, which caused him t...
The author mainly appeales to pathos. She tells a story of a woman being stabbed while her neighbors look on and also, of a man, named Rodney King, who was beaten by a few police offices while ten other officers looked on. These are good examples for her argument but, she uses these infrequent instances to try and sway her audience into thinking that they are common occurrences.
Also, in Marjie Lundstrom’s brief article entitled, Kids Are Kids-Until They Commit Crimes, she centers on the case of twelve year old Lionel Tate and his punishment for committing murder. For instance, Lundstrom states how Tate at the age of twelve savagely beat to death a young girl while he was trying to mimic one of his ‘World Wrestling Heroes” which he saw on television and at the age of fourteen became convicted as an adult of first degree murder (Lundstrom). At the time he was only twelve when he committed the crime and still to this day is getting punished for a heinous crime he committed at such a young age. Although Tate did commit a cruel crime and should receive some sort of punishment for it, the fact that he is under age should
In the article On Punishment and Teen Killers by Jenkins, sadly brings to our attention that kids are sometimes responsible for unimaginable crimes, in 1990 in a suburban Chicago neighborhood a teenager murdered a women, her husband, and her unborn child, as she begged for the life of her unborn child he shot her and later reported to a close friend that it was a “thrill kill”, that he just simply wanted to see what it felt like to shoot someone. A major recent issue being debated is whether or not we have the right to sentence Juveniles who commit heinous crimes to life in adult penitentiaries without parole. I strongly believe and agree with the law that states adolescents who commit these heinous crimes should be tried as adults and sentenced as adults, however I don’t believe they should be sentenced to life without parole. I chose this position because I believe that these young adults in no way should be excused for their actions and need to face the severe consequences of their actions. Although on the other hand I believe change is possible and that prison could be rehabilitating and that parole should be offered.
“How could a kid so sweet be so nasty too?” (54). ‘Yummy The Last Days of a Southside Story’ by G.Neri shares the true story of an eleven-year-old boy named Robert “Yummy” Sandifer who fell victim to Chicago gangs due to the alleged shooting of Shavon Dean. Yummy, a child too young to understand, too young to not give in, and never had a stable adult to look up to, is a prime example of a victim at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Pathos was use often in this story to show his compassion to those affected victims, and his disagreement toward the opposing individuals of the death penalty. In the article, the writer put sentences that had emotion that the writer convoke to the audience. For example, in the last two paragraphs he mentions the case of a murder victim that is not help. At the beginning, Koch showed sadness, then toward the end, he displayed the madness he felt toward those who did not do something to help. He believes that the opposing group toward death penalty are the same as the people that did not do anything to help. With this emotion, the author was able to make the reader thoughtful whether not supporting death penalty makes justice of the inoffensive victim. Although the writer uses a considerable amount of emotion, he does not go to an extreme, which would made his argument emotional for the reader to lost interest of
If a family member was murdered, a family member was murdered, age should not dictate if the punishment for homicide will be more lenient or not. If anyone not just juveniles has the capabilities to take someone's life and does so knowing the repercussions, they should be convicted as an adult. In the case of Jennifer Bishop Jenkins who lost her sister, the husband and their unborn child, is a strong advocate of juveniles being sentenced to life without parole. In her article “Jennifer Bishop Jenkins On Punishment and Teen Killers” she shows the world the other side of the spectrum, how it is to be the victim of a juvenile in a changing society where people are fighting against life sentences for juveniles. As she states in the article “There are no words adequate to describe what this kind of traumatic loss does to a victims family. So few who work on the juvenile offender side can truly understand what the victims of their crimes sometimes go through. Some never
Convincing readers with emotion, logic, and credibility, he persuades quite well. Pathos is exemplified while he narrates a sticky situation about wearing a Cleveland Indians hat home and he says “the look of betrayal in my Creek mother’s eyes is seared in my memory forever.” Shakely touches on Pathos again later in the article, saying “There are many things in this country that are subject to majority rule; dignity and respect are not among them.” No matter how many people in a population find something offensive, that number should alert
Torture is a loaded word. It conjures images in a readers' mind of any number of horrors, physical and mental. Many writers rely on this reaction and use pathos in their articles to illicit a strong response in their audience. Pathos is an emotional appeal used to gain sympathy and trust from the audience and works for people of all intellectual levels. It often casts the author or characters in a story as an Everyman, easy to identify, and therefore see eye to eye, with.
This may or may not have been on purpose. With circumstances Blow was provided to write about there is not really a way to avoid pathos. In this piece pathos is used both towards Joe’s family, friends, and himself. The feeling of sympathy is felt strongly for the family while the feeling of anger or resentment is felt towards Joe himself. The author chose words to describe the family that really pull at the heart strings. Blow says, “her sense of loss law”. From that statement it is easy to see that Blow meant that her pain from the loss was still fresh. He may have used this to relate to people who have lost someone before, and it may have brought back the emotions that the person felt at that time. At the same time Blow is getting sympathy for the family, he is also getting the audience angry at G.I. Joe. The determined author found a statement that was written about Joe in a good light. Then he went and said, “that mentor is also a thief”. Blow wanted to spark some emotions with that statement. Blow continued on to write about how Gliniewicz stole from a youth group he was a leader of. This could cause many people to think he is mean enough to take from a charitable organization, which could in return spark madness. Blow does a nice job of bringing out more than one emotion in just a short amount of
Throughout and for many years there has been a lot of controversy on how to trial someone who has committed a crime under the age of 18. A lie will be a lie even if it 's serious or innocent and that 's why just like a crime will always be a crime, no matter what the situation is. The age of a person who has committed murder shouldn 't be an issue or a complication. Many advocate that the juvenile is just a child, but despised that I believe that is no justification or defense for anyone who does a crime. America and the nation need to apprehend that juveniles that are being conducted to life in prison is not just for one small incident or crime, but for several severe crimes according to Jennifer Jenkins, Juvenile Justice Information
"Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time." -- David Grusin and Morgan Ames Much controversy exists on the question of whether a juvenile criminal should be punished to the same extent as an adult. Those who commit capital crimes, including adolescents, should be penalized according to the law. Age should not be a factor in the case of serious crimes.
That’s why we don’t permit 15-year-olds to drink, drive, vote or join the military” (qtd. in Billitteri). There is adolescent-development research according to Hambrick, J. and Ellem, J that has shown “children do not possess the same capacity as adults to think thru the consequences of their behaviors, control their responses or avoid peer pressure” (qtd. in Lyons). There are some very good points made in the argument against sentencing youth as adults but I still have a hard time agreeing with peer pressure or impulse control as a reason to be held in a juvenile center for less than a few years for murder. Ryan, L. uses the example of a report released by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention on “Juvenile Transfer Laws : An Effective Deterrent to Delinquency?” This report found that prosecuting youths as adults has little or no effect on juvenile crime.” She uses this information and backs it up with the report showing “youths prosecuted as adults are more likely to re-offend than youths handled in the juvenile justice system” (qtd. in Katel). This is definitely a new perspective, but I still stand with my first take on the subject. “We know young people can commit serious crimes, and the consequences are no less tragic” (qtd in
The United States has been affected by a number of crimes committed by juveniles. The juvenile crime rate has been increasing in recent years. Everyday more juveniles commit crimes for various reasons. They act as adults when they are not officially adults. There is a discussion about how juveniles should be punished if they commit heinous crimes. While many argue that juveniles who commit serious crimes, such as murder, should be treated as adults, the fact is, juveniles under the age of eighteen, are not adults, and should not be treated as such.
I also found it surprising that the man's own mother did not show up, making this man alone in court with no family members. Maybe the mother purposely missed court or didn't want to see her son. Regardless, it showed to me or suggested that his home life or upbringing might have been difficult since the social connection wasn't strong enough for a loved one to show up and support