i do not think he did it.
No murders have excuses. But at least some come with explanations. Jealousy. Robbery. Rational anger taken too far. Concealment of another crime.
Nearly a decade later, the justice system can't officially say why David Drayton took a pair of scissors and stabbed Murphey Middle School teacher Linda Gail Hendrick 70 times and severely wounded her in the head.
Afterward, the then-14-year-old special education student with spina bifida, rather than plot his escape, oddly rolled his wheelchair to the principal's office to get help for the woman he had just mortally wounded.
Of course, he initially told officials someone had climbed in the school window and attacked Hendrick. But she was able to identify him, and he later confessed.
The case was all the more curious when prosecutors were repeatedly told how nice a kid Drayton had seemed.
He did the maximum five years in a juvenile facility for aggravated battery -- but after Hendrick died on May 31, 2007, following years in a semi-comatose state, it was possible to charge Hendrick in adult court for her murder.
Motives for the savage attack have leaked out of the courthouse over the years, but because none could be officially established -- which would have allowed for a more serious class of crime -- Hendrick's mother agreed to let Drayton plead guilty to manslaughter on Tuesday.
He has been sent to prison for the maximum 20 years. If he served every one of them, he'd be 43 upon release.
This unalloyed tragedy already has led to one change in the law, and it should lead to another as well.
The law at the time of the Nov. 22, 1999, attack did not allow for minors under 17 to be tried as adults. The Hendrick case inspired a change in 2000, and now those as young as 13 can be tried in Superior Court.
That's as it should be. The term "juvenile delinquent" doesn't quite encompass 70 stab wounds.
Now that Drayton has been convicted anew, lawmakers should ask themselves if a 20-year maximum prison term is sufficient for the crime of voluntary manslaughter. We don't think it is.
Regardless, thank goodness the prison door was still open for Drayton to enter so many years later.
Comments
i do not think he did it.
Behaving nicely in one circumstance does not preclude behaving viciously in another. Of course, considering the history of the underreporting of disciplinary incidents by Murphey Middle School administrators, the Larke administration's reputation for heavy-handed imposition of a culture of silence in the RCSS in general, and the fact that serious infractions are typically precursed by less serious infractions, I must wonder whether Drayton had been as nice a kid as MMS staff had reported before he savagely attacked and destroyed the life of their colleagues ten years ago.
As long as the pc crowd insists on "mainstreaming" special ed students, this situation is likely to happen again, and again. Another strong reason for vouchers.
Special ed kids are not typically violent. Thank God you apparently do not have such a child, PT.
He is mentally retarded and in a wheel chair. He can't serve his time in a regular prison. He is changing one state institution for another. He is oblivious and happy.
He is not mentally retarded. He is physically handicapped. Huge difference. Make your case for or against mainstreaming if you wish, but this is not an approprate example.
No big deal, but Samuel Cruse, Drayton's defense attorney at the trial, wanted to admit as evidence the results of Drayton's mental and neurological tests showing him to be retarded, but Judge Kernaghan did not allow that evidence. Drayton has no control of his bladder or bowel and wears a diaper. Ms. Hendrick was going to help him with his diaper that terrible day. He should have never been in school. His punishment of 20 years simply means he will spend that time being cared for at taxpayers expense.
Spinal bifida rarely affects one's intellect but nerve damage can can do crazy things. Who knows what happened? Unless this kids gets real honest one day, we will only be guessing why. Do you know what it's gonna cost to have special arrangements and medical care for this murderer for the next 20 years. Might be better if he should accidentally roll out of the van on the way to jail.
Ted Bundy was known as a really nice regular guy.
Gee, does that mean anybody can commit a crime and as long as they get help for the victim and be totally cooperative afterwards, and shake everybody's hand at the police station and in the courtroom, and smile and look real pretty, that one could get preferential treatment. Does not the fact he stabbed the woman 70 times make any difference at all. This was a very heinous rime and should have been prosecuted as such.
The concept that individuals under the age of 17 should be treated as juveniles and not tried in "adult" courts was NOT based on the severity of the crime. It was based, reasonably and rightly in my view, on the idea that individuals under 17 do not by definition have "adult" minds and do not have the capacity to form the requisite"mens rea" of adult criminality. It makes no sense to argue that a "minor" crime may be the product of a child's mind, but a "major" crime must be the product of an "adult" mind solely on the basis of its heightened severity. So the AC's argument that Drayton was not a "juvenile delinquent" completely misses, and misstates, the issue. There may be an argument for trying youths as adults, but the severity argument is not it.
PettyThomas, he wasn't mainstreamed. He was in a self-contained Special Ed classroom. Where do you get your bizarre ideas on how schools operate?
mercifully, a pistol should be put to his head....
Where are the proofreaders? "Hendrick died on May 31, 2007, following ... a semi-comatose state, it was possible to charge Hendrick in adult court for her murder." Where is quality control. I see these sort of typos all the time in the four newspapers that I read.
And seriously PT, what does his spina bifida have to do with the crime he committed?
Yeah, we know violence never take place in private schools. What B.S.!!!!!
the only disservice was done to the teacher he killed for not getting adequate time and to future teachers who will get screwed because copy cats will see that the consequences for killing a teacher arent so bad.
Jim Christian, Patricia Thomas did not mention spinal bifida. As I posted, Sam Cruse, the defense attorney, tried to have admitted as evidence the results of mental and neurological testing of Drayton. If he was mentally or emotionally retarded, as his attorney knew (but Judge Kernaghan would not admit) many of us believe he shouldn't have been in a regular public school.
Jim Christian, school is difficult enough with having teenagers grouped together in a learning environment. To add a politically correct "dog and pony show" to prove total equality just makes school more difficult for ALL the students. Why not keep "special" students in "special" schools that are prepared to deal with them and common students in common schools so the "one size fits all" mindset of government schools will fit all.
Jesus Is Comming, I have two very special children...in the conservative sense of the word. They're intelligent, aware, witty, confident and kind. Not "special" in the progressive sense....fubar.
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