Fri May 9, 2003  12:10 pm

Tate's Supporters Push Clemency Appeal

By JACKIE HALLIFAX

Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Supporters of a teenager sentenced to life

in prison without parole for the murder of a 6-year-old pleaded for

clemency Wednesday in a meeting with a lawyer for Gov. Jeb Bush.

Lionel Tate, 16, was 12 in 1999 when he killed Tiffany Eunick, a

girl his mother was baby-sitting. Two years later he was convicted

of first-degree murder as an adult, and he is now living in a

maximum-security juvenile prison.

"He's remorseful about what happened to Tiffany and he's just

hopeful that the governor will grant clemency," his mother, Kathleen

Grossett-Tate, told reporters after meeting with Wendy Berge of the

governor's legal office.

Two South Florida ministers also attended the meeting, as did a

Jacksonville attorney who is on the board of directors for the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The group said they took about 1,500 petitions supporting clemency

to the meeting; included were letters from NAACP President Kweisi

Mfume and the World Council of Churches.

Bush told reporters earlier Wednesday that he would treat the Tate

clemency application like any other.

Bush also said he would want to review Tate's behavior. Two years

ago, the governor refused to consider Tate's clemency application

because of behavioral problems reported by prison officials.

The governor and Cabinet, which operate as the Clemency Board, are

to meet in mid-June and again in September.

Tate originally claimed that he accidentally killed Tiffany while

imitating professional wrestling moves he'd seen on television. He

now says he the girl lay at the bottom of a staircase he walked down

before he accidentally jumped on top of her. Tate weighed more than

160 pounds; Tiffany weighed about 50 pounds.

Experts testified at Tate's trial that Tiffany died of a fractured

skull and lacerated liver suffered during a beating that lasted from

one to five minutes.

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Date: Fri Apr 4, 2003  4:45 pm
Subject: Florida Pastor Appeals To UN..

 
 
 
Florida Pastor Urges U.N. Body to Stop U.S. Prosecution of Children
as Adults
By Alexander G. Higgins Associated Press Writer
Published: Apr 4, 2003
 
 
 
 
GENEVA (AP) - An American pastor has appealed to the top United
Nations human rights body to urge Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to ease the
punishment of a boy sentenced to life without parole.
"Lionel Tate's request for clemency is on the governor's desk as I
speak," the Rev. Thomas Masters told the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights
Commission on Thursday. It was unclear if the commission would act
as it is half way through its six-week annual session.
 
Urging commission members to intervene, Masters noted that Bush's
brother, President George W. Bush, has titled his education
program "No child left behind."
 
"We don't want to leave Lionel Tate behind either," said Masters,
president of the organization Under Our Wings that campaigns against
adult prosecution of children.
 
He told reporters that, even though the United States pioneered
juvenile justice, it is using adult prosecution every day against
thousands of children under a national policy of getting tough on
crime.
 
Amnesty International says about 200,000 youngsters under 18 are
tried as adults each year in the United States.
 
Tate was 12 when a Florida court convicted him of killing 6-year-old
Tiffany Eunick, a girl his mother was baby-sitting. His lawyers
asked a state clemency board last month to reduce the teen's
sentence. The panel has not ruled on the request.
 
Holding up a poster-sized photograph of the tearstained boy, Masters
said he regarded the death of Eunick as an accident.
 
But "regardless of the circumstances of the death, every recent
research tells us that the brain is not fully developed as a child
or even as an adolescent," he said. "Therefore, a child is less
culpable and more redeemable."
 
He noted that adults receive leniency if they are found to have had
the mind of a child when they committed a crime.
 
"However, if a child does the same thing, we send the child to
prison for life without parole or either execute a juvenile
offender," he said.
 
Masters, pastor of New Macedonia Baptist Church in Riviera Beach,
Fla., appeared before the commission last year on behalf of one of
his church members, Nathaniel Brazill Jr.
 
Brazill was 13 in May 2000 when he fatally shot teacher Barry
Grunow. The boy claimed the gun went off accidentally, but he was
convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 28 years in
prison.
 
Masters noted U.N. treaties regard 18 as the youngest a person can
be considered as an adult.
 
"If it applies to child soldiers, it applies to child labor, it
applies to child pornography, then it also should apply to child
prisoners," Masters said.
 
"Any time you put a child in prison for life without the possibility
of parole, it's just inhumane," he added.
 
AP-ES-04-04-03 0539EST