Aaron Hart 18 and mentally disabled, receives 100 years in prison for child sex abuse

[Ninja108]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-longsentence_10tex.ART0.State.Edition2.50f4902.htm l

I'm sorry but this is barbaric. This man has an I.Q. of 47 and IMO, doesn't even understand what he did. The problem with the mentally retarded is they have minds of children, but adult hormones and no clue of what is right and wrong. Should he be let right back out? No, but placed in a group home, not a prison unit. I know a child was victimized but you know what? Time and time again, pedophiles who know darn well what they're doing get slaps on the wrist and are released to target more children. This kid gets the harshest sentence possible simply because as the judge put it, "In the state of Texas, there isn't a whole lot you can do with somebody like him," said Clifford, who rejected Hart's first request for a new trial.
Read the rest of the article yourselves but basically because we can't be bothered to make placements or put money into programs that would help people like Aaron, we simply throw them away to the penal system. And we have the best justice system in the world?

[Charms]

How sad. However when I read the headline I knew it was Texas.
No offense to anyone who lives there because you do not pass the laws or decide who goes to prison, but there is something very wrong with the justice system in that state.

I watched Larry King last week and the topic was prisoners who were incarcerated but were innocent. Guess where they were from?
If not for DNA many prisoners would still be behind bars, which is another reason to ban the death penalty.
Appeals take years and once you've murdered the inmate and the DNA results prove his/her innocence then what?
Once again, no offense to any Texas residents, I'm sure it's a lovely state otherwise.

[momof6]

If it was my young son that was severly sexually abused, I don't give a d## who you are, life in prison would not be enough. This young boy's mental state will be negatively affected the rest of his life. Maybe he was physically damaged also. How do we know this young boy will ever recover from this sex abuse?

One doctor said the suspect new what he was doing. Just because you have a low I.Q., doesn't mean you don't know right from wrong.

Thank goodness some other innocent child will not be getting raped by him. Or possibly murdered the next time.

I'm for the victim.

[Ninja108]

I don't think he understood the ramifications of what he did or the long lasting impact of it. And one docter paid for by the DA said he knew what he was doing... right. An IQ of 47 is moderate retardation... in other words, his mind functions at the level of a second grader.
I'm sorry, Aaron shouldn't just be let back out but prison is no place for a mentally retarded person who can't read or write, can barely speak and on his best days, will be as smart as a 8-9 year old. He has already been raped several times while in jail, one by a man who only got 7 years for raping a little girl. That is not justice,it is pure torture, plain and simple. I'm not forgetting the victim but Aaron got a longer sentence because Texas just doesn't feel like dealing with him and other people with mental illinesses/disablities. Just lock them up and problem's solved.

[momof6]

How do you know Texas doesn't want to deal with people with a low I.Q? Maybe they are sick of children being sexually abused. Maybe this is how they want to deal with them, to save other children. Its so easy to blow it off by saying he had a low I.Q., so don't be so harsh on him...... He knew what he was doing and he got off on it.

The victims are the ones who suffer forever. Thank God for Texas laws, who knows what other victims their could have been down the road.

[Details]

I'm willing to believe he didn't know the ramifications of what he was doing, that it was wrong. That's all the more reason he must be locked up forever - he'll never learn his lesson, he'll never be safe to have in society - and we don't have a place other than prison right now where he can be kept, securely and surely, for the rest of his life.

The choice is between locking him up - or letting him rape other children, each one bearing the trauma, locked in a lifetime prison with those memories and scars. I would be happy were there another type of prison for him, mental hospital (although he's simply incompetent, not crazy), whatever - but there isn't.

It matters that he didn't know what he was doing was so bad - but not enough to overcome what he did do, and would do again. The fact he doesn't understand makes him MORE dangerous than a typical pedophile who might be able to learn, be reached somehow.

Texas 'justice' is often a travesty - but in this case, it's right.

[JD1974]

How do you know Texas doesn't want to deal with people with a low I.Q? Maybe they are sick of children being sexually abused. Maybe this is how they want to deal with them, to save other children. Its so easy to blow it off by saying he had a low I.Q., so don't be so harsh on him...... He knew what he was doing and he got off on it.

The victims are the ones who suffer forever. Thank God for Texas laws, who knows what other victims their could have been down the road.

I read the article and what the judge said when sentencing him, that's how I personally know Texas (or at least this judge) doesn't want to deal with people like Aaron Hart.

I think he should be in some serious trouble, but 100 years? Murderers get less time than that, seems really excessive to me for what he did but only because of his other issues.

[Details]

Prison sentences aren't supposed to be about revenge, they're supposed to be about protecting society - locking someone up to rehabilitate them, to give a motive for people to NOT commit crimes, and for the case where we don't expect either of these, to isolate the criminal from society so they can no longer hurt us.

This kid - he cannot be rehabilitated. He doesn't have the comprehension for prison time to act as a deterrent to future actions. He needs to be isolated from society. I don't like what his prison experience will be - but far better that, than a string of raped children.

There is no good answer to someone like Aaron Hart, who cannot understand what he is doing, but what he is doing is so extremely destructive to the most innocent and helpless among us. We don't have mental institutions that can take someone for life (and even if so - he's not a mental patient - he's simply disabled - therapy won't fix a thing), we don't have a mentally disabled ward that can keep him - there is no other safe spot.

[Ninja108]

I'm willing to believe he didn't know the ramifications of what he was doing, that it was wrong. That's all the more reason he must be locked up forever - he'll never learn his lesson, he'll never be safe to have in society - and we don't have a place other than prison right now where he can be kept, securely and surely, for the rest of his life.

The choice is between locking him up - or letting him rape other children, each one bearing the trauma, locked in a lifetime prison with those memories and scars. I would be happy were there another type of prison for him, mental hospital (although he's simply incompetent, not crazy), whatever - but there isn't.

It matters that he didn't know what he was doing was so bad - but not enough to overcome what he did do, and would do again. The fact he doesn't understand makes him MORE dangerous than a typical pedophile who might be able to learn, be reached somehow.

Texas 'justice' is often a travesty - but in this case, it's right.

Then how come another man who came before this same judge who also sexually assulted a young boy only got four years? How come one of the people who has raped Aaron in jail (and he has been raped several times)was only serving seven years for child sexual abuse? How come these animals http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/crime/stories/DN-rape_11met.ART.East.Edition1.51024ba.html got probation?
No, it's not right. We give people who darn well know what they're doing slaps on the wrists, free to victimize more kids but we decide to lock up someone who's mentally retarded in prison for him to be raped over and over again? Bull, Aaron's being locked up because we as a society would like to just ignore the mentally ill/retarded. There were other options for Aaron such as a secure group home but nope, simply throw someone who didn't really understand what they did away to be brutalized while the other cases I mentioned are released to victimize again. How is that "justice" or protecting society?