Kids in Prison (The Friend's Murder)

Carl Newton Mahan

I found many articles regarding the conviction of Carl Newton Mahan. Some were really relevant to show the actual view and scenes that happened. I come up to the conclusion of my own perspective to the story, even though I wasn’t really there.

It was May 8, 1929. Carl Newton Mahan, 6 year old, and Cecil Van Hoose, 8 year old, were in a steep hills of a coal-mining town in Kentucky, US. Both were planning to sell a scrap iron to a junk dealer for money. The town and neighborhood is famous for coal and iron-selling things.

The two boys had an argument that day making Cecil took the metal they are about to sell and slap it on Carl. Carl then quickly ran away to get home, with Cecil coming on him, took his father’s 12-gauge shotgun from the door and went back outside. He then shouted “I’m going to shoot you!” and pulled the trigger on Cecil.

Away from the topic, a shooting happened during the month of May, year 2000 in Michigan. A six-year-old girl had been shot by her first-grade boy classmate. The girl argued on the boy. Two stories were said to be the reason behind this, one is for spitting on her desk or the girl refused to kiss him. Unknowingly, the boy had bought a gun in school which was used to kill the girl. The gun was kept in his desk before going back to the principal’s office. I will talk about the full story of this on my next article.

Going back, a week after Carl’s murder of his friend, he was put on trial and was sentenced to fifteen years behind bars for the case of manslaughter. Many people believed that the punishment wasn’t enough, others says it’s too much for a young boy.

The parents then bailed him for $500.

Carl died at the age of 35 in Jefferson County in 1958.

Personally, I think the boy understood the idea of hurting people. What he did not understand, maybe, are the consequences of hurting people “too much”. Yes, we can say that he is a young boy, he may not know what he’s doing back then or maybe the irritation towards the fight he had with his friend, made him do such things. But one thing is for sure, the victim lost his life for a short period of time. Although, I still say that Cecil slapping Carl with a metal is not really a good thing. But a gunshot isn’t the way to bring revenge to him. The fact that Carl already knew how to pull the trigger is a sign of having a little maturity in him, or can be he just saw it in his father since the gun was his father’s.

I also found another thing in the story. The year was 1929; kids back then in that country are allowed to be inside prison when they commit crimes, which is really surprising to me. Here in the Philippines, you are not allowed to be behind bars unless you are already eighteen years of age. 18 is the age where most people claim here as matured and old enough for their actions. For me, people who are starting to know and understand the idea and concept of right and wrong are already in the right age. Maturity is seen by actions, not age.