I would love for this child to be innocent, but not any cost. Not at the cost of truth. That just would not help. I also feel horrible for the victims and their families. I just feel that either way, this little boy is one of those victims. I think the evidence is pretty strong that this kid did it. I am not 100% sure, but close. However, the act of killing does not automatically cause a child to become a cold-blooded adult. He is a child. Period. He has the still developing brain of a child. He cannot forsee consequences as an adult does, due to lack of development in his frontal lobe. He cannot control impulses in the manner that adults can, also due to lack of development of his frontal lobe. If sociopathic, I linked to research that evidences that child psychopaths (same as sociopaths or kids with conduct disorders), CAN be treated, as their brains are still developing, unlike adults. However, I have not seen ONE case of a child near this age who killed his parent(s) and was diagnosed as a sociopath. Again, overwhelmingly, children, even older children who commit patricide, have suffered some form of egregious abuse. In a minority of cases, it appears they were children who just snapped either due to a mental issue or an inability to foresee consequences or control impulse. I have not heard of one case where a child who killed his parents was diagnosed as a sociopath (or any derivative thereof). I'm sure one exists but I have yet to see it, which must mean something.
Should there then be punishment for a child who kills? Remember, an 8 year old is only supposed to be on time-out for EIGHT MINUTES. That is because, an 8 year old will begin to forget why he is on time-out and/or the punishment loses meaning/effectiveness after a larger length of time. Again, this is due to the childish perception of child for whom a year is an eternity. So, do you think incarcerating this boy in a prison with older children (as there are not man little kids in jail), or isolating him from the rest of the prisoners, for years, is going to effectively punish this child? Or, is it meant to act as a societal deterrance for all those other little homicidal 8 year olds, because after all, they read the news at that age, right! (Saracasm intended). (Also, if he is a sociopath, it would not help at all. Such a kid would not be effect one bit by incarceration. He'd just turn into another Manson or Joseph Duncan, both of whom were incarcerated fro long periods as minors).
This is a child, therefore there is hope. He needs years of intensive mental health treatment, probably years of in-patient care. This will help understand what went wrong and will allow him to eventually understand the seriousness of what he has done, which, once he realizes it, could cause him to lose his mind. The competency rules, juvenile court and laws against putting minors to death, for example, are on the books for a reason, folks. And it's not because some crazy liberals created those laws. It is because we, as a society, understand that children are simply not the same as adults.
