By NC WANTED Staff

Posted: Nov 14, 2008
Updated: Nov 14, 2008

ALL COUNTIES — It has been 10 years since the murder of Tiffany Long shocked and devastated the small city of Burlington, North Carolina. Tiffany was bound and beaten, raped and sodomized, and strangled with a cable cord.

She was 10 years old.

Her mangled body was found in an abandoned house October 28, 1998. The rape and murder of such a young, innocent child sparked fear in the community, a fear that monsters were among them.

The “monsters,” in fact, were practically children themselves.

Joseph Jones, Harold Jones and Dorthia Bynum are all serving life sentences for the murder of Tiffany Long. They were 13, 15 and 17 at the time of the murder.

Although Tiffany’s murder is among the most gruesome, it is certainly not the only example of teenagers committing murder. In most cases in North Carolina, including in the case of 13-year-old Joseph Jones, these teens are treated as adults in the eyes of the criminal justice system. For grown-up crimes there are grown-up penalties.

Current North Carolina law defines a teen 16 and up as an adult. Most states use the age 18. Depending on the severity of the crime, as in the case of Joseph Jones, younger teens can also be tried as adults, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The death penalty, however, is prohibited for convicted murderers under the age of 18.

Legislation in the NC General Assembly this year would have raised the juvenile age to 18, which could have had drastic implications for two recent high-profile murder cases in our area. The legislation, House Bill 492, did not pass.

Lawrence Lovette, the 17-year-old from Durham who is accused of murdering Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato and UNC student body president Eve Carson, will face a life sentence if he is convicted. If H.B. 492 had passed, Orange County district attorney Jim Woodall would have had to prove that the crime was severe enough to prosecute Lovette as an adult. It is likely that he would have won that argument, given the brutal nature of the Eve Carson murder.

Teenage years for most are crucial times for planning and envisioning a future – a career, a family, the long road ahead. For Kenneth Meeks, who was 16 when he raped and murdered Brittany Willis in Wilson, the future is certain: a life of incarceration without the possibility of parole.

In an exclusive interview last winter, Meeks told NC WANTED that he is working toward rehabilitation and he thinks he should be allowed to go free once he has served his debt to society.

“I understand the life part, but when they say life without parole, they’re basically saying, they’re basically trying to say that you’re in there, you’re not going to get out unless you die and that’s the only way you’re going to get out. They should at least set up some sort of…board to evaluate you to see if you actually have rehabilitated yourself and see if you actually have learned from what you did,” Meeks said.

His mother, who asked that she not be identified by name, told NC WANTED that she believes people can change, especially juveniles, and that they should be given another chance at a lawful life outside of prison.

“We all make mistakes. We’ve all erred somewhere in our lives… but if someone told you that you could never have a second chance. At age 16, you’re not even allowed to smoke, drink. You can’t even really drive without your parents. You can’t do anything. But now, you’re an adult. That’s a hard blow. That’s really a hard blow,” she said.

How juveniles should be treated is a point of contention among members of the criminal justice system, as well as the community at large.

Eric Zogry is a juvenile defender in Durham who supported H.B. 492.

“There’s not a whole lot of difference between a 15-year-old, 16-year-old or even 14-year-old, and this is based on scientific research that has been fairly recent,” Zogry said. “At 16 and 17, you’re still developing and so you should be given the same opportunity and benefit of the doubt that you can change your behavior.”

He added that juvenile court is the best place to handle juvenile offenders as they develop, to help curb unlawful behaviors early and keep them from becoming criminal adults.

Others have argued that raising the age would expand juvenile court to a critical breaking point. Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall told NC WANTED that although he theoretically agrees with raising the juvenile age, the system could not handle it.

“There’s no question: The infrastructure is not in place to handle it. You don’t have juvenile facilities to handle the juveniles that would go into detention,” he said.

He added, however, that building the infrastructure now could allow for a change in the future. A change, he believes, is appropriate because most juvenile offenses are fairly minor, non-violent crimes.

“Shouldn’t there be a time whenever they (juvenile offenders) can say, ‘Wait a minute. I’ve not done anything else wrong. I did that when I was 17, now I’m 27, take that off my record.’” Woodall said. “I think that’s a concern that you label someone a felon at 16, 17 years old and they have to live with that for the rest of their lives.”