5 thoughts on “Guilty”

1. Justina Morley should not have received such a lienant sentence. All 4 of these people???? are heartless human beings.
   Losing a child is the most devastating event a parent can go through. I lost my child in June of 2003 so I know. I can only say that the Sweeney family will always be in my prayers.

2. Regardless of how I personally feel about the death penalty, I do wish there could more creative punishments doled out. Life in prison is fine, but I would also like to arrange for weekly beatings with a chunk of concrete.

   When I lived in Fishtown, I used to see those kids around the neighborhood all the time. Two of them lived around the corner and they liked to hang out in the alley next to my house. There’s something seriously wrong with them.

3. I’m sorry Karl. I went back and read what you’ve posted and other have in the past. And I have a little bit of a different take/opinion.

   The hill he was beat to death on was one my friends and I used when we went fishing in the summers. At night it is black and dark. With the occasional cop or railroad security guard chasing kids off. Trash is usually laying around from people dumping it off their trucks and driving away.

   As a matter of fact a year or so prior to Sweeney being killed there, my friends and I were walking out of there and through the Port Richmond Plaza. From my memory 3 of of 5 kids hanging out in that parking lot were 3 of the 4 suspects convicted in Sweeney’s murder. After they ran their mouths at us I chased them a block and a half until they ran under I-95.

   It’s a strange turn that these kids ended up jumping one guy with his pants down around his ankles in such a brutal and in-human way.

   I know people are going to come out of the woodwork and say: It’s the drugs not the neighborhood etc. I’m going to tell you I still have friends down in Kensington/Fishtown/Port Richmond area. And the hood has gotten worse. I now live in the Northeast. Just wait until they build their casino’s there. (Think about the neighborhoods around Atlantic City as a reference)

   I feel for my friends that still live there because they haven’t gotten out yet.

   These 4 kids, deserve exactly what they gave.

   The fact that the Supreme Court stepped in and said they and their kind can’t be executed is nothing short of a sick and deluded ruling.

   If it had been one of their kids killed in this manner, or one of their friencs kids. They’d be sharpening the knives and polishing their guns as we speak.

   All 4 deserve death. Instead, three of the 4 spend the rest of their lives being a burden to society and taxpayers that now will pay for their existance.

   They planned this for a month. That’s 4 weeks. They broke every bone in this childs face. And he was best friends with them. How’s that for friendship?

   No, they deserve to feel the pain of death now, not later.

4. I agree with all of you in one shape or form or another.

   I got a feeling mac that their “peers” in their new “home” will dole out more creative punnishment than any of us can conceive.

   Peggy – I’m sorry for your loss. No one should ever lose a child. It’s the most terrible thing anyone can ever go thru.

   My prayers have been out to the Sweeney family and continue to be.

5. I stayed away for awhile, but I have to honestly say, I don’t feel as strongly about the death penalty as I thought I once did.
   I also had a friend murdered I was angry, I was in pain.I hungered for the death penalty for the 19 year old criminal who did this, but it was not to be, and life in Prison is what we got. But now I find myself wondering about this, his 19 year old life in prison. What is the purpose now of that life. Justina Morley is 15 years old! Yes, they all did horribel things, but she is still a child and I just don’t feel, having lived through this, as comfortable with discounting her life at because we all deserve an eye for an eye. I know there is no easy way to say this without upsetting those who feel strongly about the death penalty, but at 15, 16, 17 years old I just can;t say. “Throw away the key”. I remember 15, 16, 17. It was horrible. Those memories are burned in me. Everything was worse than it was when looked at from an older perspective. These kids are not right, they need help and life in prison will not give them that, they have nothing to look forward too, no incentive for doing better. No hope to be better or understand just how wrong their actions were. Isn’t this why child sentencing laws are different than adult laws, so that they could have the chance as adults to give back and be productive members of society? I just wonder if their receiving the Death Penalty or life in prison is the “good”,that could come from this? I have to honeslty say that the conviction of the 19 year old person in my case didn’t make me feel any better about my loss. It did not provide closure and it did not heal any wounds. It just made me think that it was just another wasted life. There is nothing in the Philadelphia Prison System that I know of that can help rehabilitate this person, or these kids. There is nothing that can help them work through this and come to terms with their actions and understand what they did and how it affected others. In a sense we have given up on these CHILDREN of ever really understanding humanity, empthay, forgiveness, remorse, drive, humilty, forgiveness and regret. We have given up on their lives and I wonder has society’s nurturing of revenge and satisfaction become such a huge monster in itself that we are just blind now to the fact that these three kids are now in a sense Dead. I understand Karl, that you had said something to the effect that they have years now to think over everything that they have done, but I wonder if it will even affect them that much, other than the regret that they got caught. I have to say, I am surprising even myself here with this, but how is this better? How is society getting better when we think it is o-k to throw these 3 lives away. Guilty are they? Yes, but they are still kids, there has to be a better way. Wish I knew what it was.

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