An eight-year-old boy faces double-murder charges in the shooting death of his father and another man while residents in the bucolic community of St. Johns try to make sense of the chilling crime. “This is precedent-setting. We’re going to charge an eight-year-old with two counts of homicide,” Police Chief Roy Melnick said. “We haven’t had anything like this in Apache County in my 23 years as a prosecutor,” County Attorney Criss Candelaria said. “We need to figure out what was going on in this boy’s head.”

The child’s father, 29, and a boarder, Tim Romans, 39, were found dead at the family residence about 5 p.m. Wednesday, shortly after neighbors reported the sound of gunfi re. The Arizona Republic is withholding the father’s and child’s names to avoid identifying a juvenile. Melnick said police discovered one of the bodies outside the front door, the other in an upstairs room. 

Instructions 

1.Go to the website 

www.cengage.com/criminaljustice/samaha. 

2. Watch the YouTube video and read the selections on the site. 

3. Write a one-page essay answering the question: Is it ethical public policy to charge a 10-year-old with first-degree murder. Back up your answer with the information you got from the selections and from the “The Excuse of Age” section on pp. 190–91 of your text.