I've always had a problem with children testifying to law enforcement, particularly in a court of law. In child molestation cases, its particularly troublesome because really, there's only 2 parties that know exactly what went on: the pedophile and the victim. However, sometimes the victim isn't a victim at all, and then things can quickly turn horribly, horribly wrong.
I submit the following for your opinions on child testimony, parent's rights, and vigilanteism.
Vigilante Father Sentenced To Life In PrisonBy BILL HEERY
wheery@tampatrib.com Published: Sep 3, 2003
BARTOW - A man branded by a prosecutor as a vigilante was sentenced Tuesday to life without parole after the state decided not to seek the death penalty.
James Alton Price showed no emotion as Circuit Judge Susan Roberts sentenced him to life in prison, the only other option on his conviction for first-degree murder.
The penalty phase of the trial was scheduled for Tuesday and today. But the prosecutor declined to pursue a death sentence after Roberts said he couldn't argue to the jury that the killing of Kenneth Lee Stephenson, 31, was cold, calculated and premeditated.
Stephenson's family had hoped for the death penalty.
``I think he deserves it, but God's will be done,'' said the victim's widow, Misty Stephenson.
``It's up to him [God] now. He's the ultimate judge.''
She expressed regret that the jury did not get to hear her feelings about how the murder of the father of four had affected the family. ``I think I have a right to say something to him,'' she said.
Price's family left the courthouse without comment.
Price, a 49-year-old construction worker, killed Stephenson because he thought Stephenson had tried to pick up four boys, including Price's 10-year-old son, from a school bus stop, authorities said. The boys later admitted they had lied when they claimed a man in a red car tried to abduct them two days before the killing. Assistant State Attorney John Aguero called
Price a vigilante who killed an innocent man. Price reportedly told Polk County sheriff's deputies after the slaying,
``I had a right to shoot that man; he tried to molest my son.'' Stephenson a father of four children himself was on his way home from his job as a rental truck repairman when he was killed in the roadside confrontation early on the morning of Sept. 16, 2000.
During the trial,
Price claimed he shot Stephenson with his .357-caliber Magnum because he thought Stephenson was reaching into his red Chevrolet for a gun. Aguero said Roberts' decision not to allow him to argue that the killing was cold and calculated undercut his argument that Price deserved the death penalty. That decision left him with only one aggravated circumstance: that
Price had prior convictions for crimes of violence in the early- to mid-1970s for attempted murder and armed robbery. Besides first-degree murder, Price was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Sentencing on that charge was set for Sept. 11.
