Cassidy Goodson, 14-Year-Old, Murders Her Newborn Baby:

[PizzaSHARK]

Sociopath? Really? Not just a terrified, uneducated, uncontrolled child?

She pried the baby out with scissors, checked for a pulse to determine if it was still alive, and when she discovered it was still alive, strangled it until it was dead. Then she stuffed it in a shoebox and left it in her room for days.

She told the sheriff that interviewed her that she felt no remorse for her actions.

That's the action of a sociopath, or at least someone destined to become one without psychiatric care.

[Laize]

96 people voted the death penalty.. God I hate our society. Let's kill a kid because she killed a kid. You'd think society would have more sense than a desperate pregnant 14 year old. Pathetic way to shove a problem away easily.

---------- Post added 2012-10-05 at 09:51 PM ----------



She was fourteen. Please tell me who is going to benefit from her time behind bars. The dead newborn? Her? Society? I'll tell you who, no one.

Who benefits from leaving her free to live her life almost as if it never happened?

What? You want to keep her going out with her friends and living a normal life with just a psychiatrist visit every week?

Justice isn't only about what's right for the criminal.

---------- Post added 2012-10-06 at 07:43 AM ----------

The American jail system is based around Blind Vengeance, not rehabilitation.

We Americans recognize the problems with our prisons. We do need to focus more on rehabilitation.

I'll die before I let our prison system turn into Norway though.

[Laize]

HOLY CRAP! THEY ACTUALLY DID IT!

In Florida they're trying her as an adult. They DO have some good sense down there. Phew.

[Yuyn]

I'm going to bet she was put through abstinence-only sex education, and possibly also had anti-abortion messages drilled into her. While it doesn't excuse what she did, it is a major mitigating factor in some parts of her actions -- and, to me, adds to the culpability of her family and society at large for what happened. A teenager doing what comes naturally to teenagers (like it or not, sex is natural when your body is flooded with hormones driving you towards it) is not acting like an adult -- she may have never been given the proper tools and support structures to act like an adult (namely responsible, safe sex), and that part of this story cannot be held against her.

But if the suggestions of her stating having no remorse are true, she needs to be evaluated by a psychiatrist, and may need significant ongoing therapy. Psychopathy is rare -- rarer still that a psychopath doesn't at least understand how the consequences of their actions impact themselves (in this case, potentially being thrown in jail). I'd strongly suspect that there's a lot more wrong with this kid, and possibly major trauma in her past. That needs to be dealt with before trying to punish her (or 'bring justice'). If she is mentally unwell, then helping her with that may lead her to enough punishment -- I doubt that any healthy human being could stand to look themselves in the mirror if they'd personally killed a newborn baby with their own hands.

[PizzaSHARK]

HOLY CRAP! THEY ACTUALLY DID IT!

In Florida they're trying her as an adult. They DO have some good sense down there. Phew.

Goddamn, makes me glad to see that. A life sentence might be a little excessive, but maybe with possibility of parole if a psychiatrist gives her a clean mental bill of health.

Itarater: I don't think 14's even old enough for sex ed. But yeah, our country fucking sucks at actually educating kids about their bodies.

[Deleted]

As I've no experience with that kind of stuff and I vaguely remember being 14 I cant really make a decision on her punishment, I'll just let better qualified people work with her and make that decision.

[PizzaSHARK]

In my state we learned about sex ed in 5th grade. That is when guys start getting boners, and girls start getting boobs. It's around said age. 14 is not 3. A 14 year old knows what they are doing.

I don't recall there being an actual sex education section until freshman health class. We were taught about our bodies from an anatomical standpoint much earlier than that, but the actual act of sex and what that involves and means wasn't touched on until much later.

Of course, as far as I'm aware sex ed in the US still doesn't teach kids anything that's actually useful to know; we're still pushing some ridiculous psuedo-Christian abstinence agenda, I think. I imagine teenage pregnancy would go way the hell down if we actually taught kids about sex and things like how to properly use a condom instead of acting like having sex is some kind of vile, criminal act.

When I was 16, if I wanted to fuck, I was gonna fuck. Even nerdy kids like me got laid if we really wanted to. That's not going to change - your body is TELLING you to go fuck, and I've never seen an "abstinence only" kid that looked like his or her head was on all the way.

[Templar 331]

Goddamn, makes me glad to see that. A life sentence might be a little excessive, but maybe with possibility of parole if a psychiatrist gives her a clean mental bill of health.

Itarater: I don't think 14's even old enough for sex ed. But yeah, our country fucking sucks at actually educating kids about their bodies.

When I was in middle school(97-99), they split the boys and girls up and taught us about our reproductive organs. Didn't really go into TOO much detail. And I don't think they taught us too much about sex either. That was explained in freshman year health class. Starting with the STDs you could get. And that came with pics. X(

[Trassk]

You hear this kind of story all the time. An adolescent, who more then likely wasn't even raised properly by her parents, and so has no concept of mortality, does something so horrific later on it stuns the world.

For what to become of her, that depends purely on her state of mind. Was she under so much stress from having the baby that she couldn't see it as a baby and rather a thing? Was it because her own parents raised her without any love or understanding of love?

If she was classed as mentally unstable when she did it, I would say confine her to a psychiatric prison so doctors can perhaps help her overcome it. If she did so with sound mind, then theres nothing left of a human being in the girl and she should be locked up for the rest of her life.

[Raphtheone]

HOLY CRAP! THEY ACTUALLY DID IT!

In Florida they're trying her as an adult. They DO have some good sense down there. Phew.

I'm unfamiliar with the US legal system in this regard, does this mean she's legally an adult now? Or is it only when it suits the legal system? For instance, if she's cleared of all charges, can she vote, or is she considered not grown up yet in that regard?

[Laize]

I don't recall there being an actual sex education section until freshman health class. We were taught about our bodies from an anatomical standpoint much earlier than that, but the actual act of sex and what that involves and means wasn't touched on until much later.

Of course, as far as I'm aware sex ed in the US still doesn't teach kids anything that's actually useful to know; we're still pushing some ridiculous psuedo-Christian abstinence agenda, I think. I imagine teenage pregnancy would go way the hell down if we actually taught kids about sex and things like how to properly use a condom instead of acting like having sex is some kind of vile, criminal act.

When I was 16, if I wanted to fuck, I was gonna fuck. Even nerdy kids like me got laid if we really wanted to. That's not going to change - your body is TELLING you to go fuck, and I've never seen an "abstinence only" kid that looked like his or her head was on all the way.

I never got laid in High School.

Nor did I care about it.

In fact I wouldn't say I really started giving a shit until I was around my early 20s.

Of course I'm certain I'm the outlier here, but it always seemed to me that kids who only wanted to screw had some weird damn priorities.

---------- Post added 2012-10-06 at 09:29 PM ----------

I'm unfamiliar with the US legal system in this regard, does this mean she's legally an adult now? Or is it only when it suits the legal system? For instance, if she's cleared of all charges, can she vote, or is she considered not grown up yet in that regard?

For the purposes of the trial, she's considered an adult. You can do that in the US so someone can't decide to murder or rape a classmate at 16/17 and then only get 4 years in jail.

[Deleted]

If she is having sex and stuff this means she's mature enough to be treated like and adult (for killing her baby).I vote death sentence 100%,these pshychopaths shouldt be around normal people,you really have to be fucked in the head to strangle ur child and put it in a shoebox...the age here is even worse..imagine what she can think of when she's older..besides..will she have a normal life even if they release her? how will people look at you,knowing you killed ur own baby..she'll even go more crazy,feel isolated and such...Death sentence is the best for her

[Deleted]

Guessing she will rename herself to Cassidy Baddaughter.

---------- Post added 2012-10-06 at 05:14 PM ----------

I'm unfamiliar with the US legal system in this regard, does this mean she's legally an adult now? Or is it only when it suits the legal system? For instance, if she's cleared of all charges, can she vote, or is she considered not grown up yet in that regard?

Yep, the latter. If the crime is heinous enough to instill the public opinion, the criminal may as well be 5 years old, he will still be tried as an adult.
Justice is VERY open to emotional influence in the USA.

[Laize]

Guessing she will rename herself to Cassidy Baddaughter.

---------- Post added 2012-10-06 at 05:14 PM ----------



Yep, the latter. If the crime is heinous enough to instill the public opinion, the criminal may as well be 5 years old, he will still be tried as an adult.
Justice is VERY open to emotional influence in the USA.

Actually it's really not. Trying someone as an adult is based on more than public opinion. It's based on whether the individual weighed the options available to them and came to a logical decision that the crime was what they wanted to do.

[Deleted]

Actually it's really not. Trying someone as an adult is based on more than public opinion. It's based on whether the individual weighed the options available to them and came to a logical decision that the crime was what they wanted to do.

So if a 5 year old wants to kill his brother with his father's gun and knows what will happen, he should be tried as an adult and maybe get the death penalty.

[Laize]

So if a 5 year old wants to kill his brother with his father's gun and knows what will happen, he should be tried as an adult and maybe get the death penalty.

If you can prove that a 5 year old made a thoughtful decision to do anything besides watch Dora the Explorer, you're welcome to try.

Most people's brains (In my experience) aren't developed enough to actually start storing memories and making non-knee-jerk decisions until they're around 6 or 7. Ask someone who learned to read at 4 or 5 what life was like before they knew how to read. I can't answer that question. Maybe there's someone who can.

[jonte912]

don't see why she should get any sentence at all, except maybe some help etc

it's not like she killed a "person" what she did is pretty much the same as abortion

[Laize]

don't see why she should get any sentence at all, except maybe some help etc

it's not like she killed a "person" what she did is pretty much the same as abortion

It's not an abortion. This was a successfully delivered baby which she picked up and strangled.

If you go to a nursery in a hospital and strangle a baby, is it the same as an abortion?

[MIKK3MIKK3]

That poor little girl, her parents should be put in jail and tried for not giving a care

[Laize]

That poor little girl, her parents should be put in jail and tried for not giving a care

It's a good thing the state of Florida doesn't have a bleeding heart like the people on this board.

She's being tried as an adult.