Young Offender's Law: Myth and Reality

Murder suspect knifed man in 2002


Teenager charged in cab driver’s stabbing death


By DAVENE JEFFREY Staff Reporter

Date of Chronicle Herald article Thursday, January 29, 2005 page 1. Below is the article for your comment.

A 17-year-old charged with murdering Dartmouth taxi driver Ken Purcell on Christmas Day stabbed another cabbie three years ago.
The boy, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arraigned in Halifax youth court late Wednesday morning on a charge of second-degree murder.

Wearing a white T-shirt, black sweatpants and sneakers, the clean-cut boy with close-cropped hair sat quietly in court and showed no expression during the brief hearing.

The courtroom was packed with media, police and large groups of supporters from the boy’s family and the victim’s family. There were no signs of tension between the two family groups as they mixed in the lobby after the hearing.

At one point, the victim’s brother touched the boy’s mother on the arm and spoke a few words to her quietly. She turned her head toward him and said, "Thank you."
Mr. Purcell, a 62-year-old driver for Bob’s and Blue Bell Taxi, was found in his car at the corner of Main Street and Raymoor Drive in Dartmouth. He’d been stabbed.

It’s believed the killer called a taxi to a Needs convenience store on Highfield Park Drive at about 7:45 a.m. and asked to be driven to 14 Churchill Ct.

At about 8:10 a.m., Mr. Purcell called his dispatcher saying he’d been stabbed.
On Sept. 6, 2002, when the boy was just 14, he stabbed Halifax cabbie Joginder Singh once in the chest. His plan had been to rob a taxi driver to get money to settle a drug debt. When Mr. Singh requested his fare, the boy pulled out a steak knife he had hidden in a sock, stuck it into the driver’s chest and ran off.

The boy pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and possessing a knife for a purpose dangerous to the public peace. At his sentencing three months after the crime, he pleaded for forgiveness and asked the court to give him one more chance.

He was sentenced to 18 months in custody, to be followed by a year on probation, and he was banned from owning or possessing weapons for two years after his sentence expired.

At that time, the boy’s mother said her son had been a good boy who wanted to be a preacher until he started to rebel at age 13 and was drawn toward the "gangsta" lifestyle. He had been brought up in a Christian household and the woman said she had tried to home-school her boy and keep him away from bad influences.

She was in court Wednesday for her son’s arraignment.

Mr. Singh could not be reached Wednesday but his son, who answered the telephone, was nearly speechless to hear that his father’s attacker has been charged in Mr. Purcell’s death.

He said his family had been discussing the murder just the night before and had wondered among themselves what the chances were that the same boy might be involved.
Mr. Singh has since made a full recovery and has returned to driving cabs, his son said.

In court Wednesday, Crown attorney Frank Hoskins put the court on notice that if the teen is convicted of killing Mr. Purcell, the Crown will seek to have him sentenced as an adult.

Outside the courtroom, Mr. Hoskins said he would not discuss the circumstances of the case other than to say: "We feel it’s an appropriate case to seek an adult sentence."

After the hearing, Mr. Hoskins met with the Purcell family to discuss the court process with them.

The maximum adult sentence the boy could face for second-degree murder would be 10 to 25 years, Mr. Hoskins said. The maximum youth sentence for the same crime would be seven years, he said.

The boy is to return to court Jan. 18 for a bail hearing.


(djeffrey@herald.ca)

Comment:

By

F. Stanley Boyd

Am I mistaken here, or can this youth offender be recognized and identified from this Chronicle Herald photo? If so, what is the purpose of the Act and who monitors the newspapers and other media outlets to see that the Act is obeyed? Are all cases of young offenders being treated the same, or equally?

There are other cases in recent memory where the offender's identity especially his head and face have never been in full focus. This is in reference to the case of the youth, who driving a car in Halifax, which he had stolen and who was being pursued by police, killed an innocent female driver of another car.

That youth's head has never been fully depicted; the youth's head was always shown out of focus. This morning's photo is a departure from that standard, where the back of the head, shoulders and body of a Black youth are shown in full focus.

Has the paper made a gaffe, or mistake in this case? Is race an issue here, or should we conclude that some offenders are more equal than other offenders.

Still, there was the New Brunswick man who was murdered in Bedford by some wealthy youths from Bedford and the newspapers rallied to the young offenders' defence with newspaper articles, praising the young offenders with the intensity of a political campaign over several editions of the local press for preferential justice, or so it seemed.

The man who was murdered in the Bedford Mall hardly got a defining sentence or was hardly mentioned and the disposition of those charges are still not known. Does anyone remember that case, now that it is history?

For some, does the young offenders the Act become a myth? Does it have less application for some than it does for others?

Does this morning's article (presented in full text above) imply, despite the fact of the "boy's" age, 17, that he should be treated as an adult make sense? Does this morning's article make sense in light of those youths from Bedford, with a well-oiled newspaper campaign, depicting them as "just good" boys (youths) who somehow managed to go astray for just one night of alleged murder and mayhem?

There is the fact that this same youth in this morning's newspaper was found guilty of stabbing a cab driver some years ago but, there is no admission of guilt (that I know of) in this case. So isn't it premature at this time, for that same press, which waged a campaign for the protection of the Bedford youth (not claiming their innocence), to be reporting the Crown attorney's comment outside the court: "We feel it's an appropriate case to seek to an adult sentence." What equality of justice for young offenders is being demonstrated by the local press in these two cases? Also should a Crown attorney be making such a comment at this stage of the processings? Or is he testing the water before making such a recommendation?

Does the Young Offenders Act apply equally to all young offenders? Should young offenders be tried as adults and, if yes, under what circumstances? Has this young man's true psychological state of mind been fully disclosed by qualified medial practitioners? Who, if anyone, has conducted those examinations? Do such medial examinations have to be done in order to assure fairness to this youth? Can the public expect to know whether such pyschological examination have been entered into?

The fairminded citizens of the Halifax Regional Municipality, and there are many, will want to know the answers to some of these questions.

Finally, what has happened to the after school programs that once provided young people with role models and time well spend in community centres doing school homework and at the same time, allowing them recreational outlets such as basketball and other sports?

I hope my readers will comment on and raise these questions. I hope you will express your fairminded opinions as this young man, unlike the youths in Bedford, will never have a campaign conducted through the media for his defence.

This morning newspapwer has already attempted to implanted in the public mind that this "boy" is guilty and deserves be tried as an adult.

Mercy for all is a civilized community's measure of humanity.

To the Purcell family whose lives have been altered forever by these tragic events I offer my condolences and concern that this should never happen again and my personal expression of remorse at these tragic events.

The Chronicle Herald volume 57 number 310

"Slamming Black People Independently since 1824"

This acticle below appeared Wednesday, December 28, 2005 edition of The Chronicle Herald at page 1.

Deadly encounter

Police unsure how Dartmouth taxi driver met the person who stabbed him to death

By DAN ARSENAULT Crime Reporter

This acticle appeared Wednesday, December 28, 2005 at page 1.

Police are still trying to find out how taxi driver Ken Purcell and his killer came together in Dartmouth on Christmas morning.

"We’re still exploring the circumstances of how the crime was committed," Theresa Brien, spokeswoman for Halifax Regional Police, said Tuesday.

A 17-year-old boy has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of the 62-year-old driver.

Police aren’t sure if the killer called a Bob’s and Blue Bell Taxi to a Needs convenience store on Highfield Park Drive. Someone called a taxi at about 7:45 a.m. and the fare asked to be taken to 14 Churchill Ct., but Ms. Brien wouldn’t confirm if Mr. Purcell died at the hands of the passenger.

"How the suspect came in contact with the victim is one of the areas we are continuing to focus on," she said.

The victim called his dispatcher at about 8:10, saying he’d been stabbed. He was later found in his cab at the corner of Main Street and Raymoor Drive.

Police arrested the teenager outside a Highfield Park address late Monday afternoon and said he would appear in Halifax youth court this morning.

Ms. Brien wouldn’t say what led police to make the arrest or if they had recovered a weapon. She did say police are not looking for other suspects.

Don Purcell, the victim’s brother, said the arrest provides some relief but family members hope the case is bumped up to adult court, where there is potential for a much longer sentence.

"If he wants to play the tune, then he’s got to dance with the piper," he said.

The victim’s niece, Susan, said the community has rallied around her family and she’s grateful for the help.

"I was floored I wasn’t expecting it at all," she told Global TV news. "It’s awful that this occurred on Christmas, but then to have everybody come together" is heartening for the family, she said.

Tina Blackburn, a Bob’s dispatcher, said fundraising efforts are underway to assist the Purcells. She told Global that people "want to do something for the family, and the monetary donation is pretty much all that they can do."

Don Purcell said he was home with his wife on Christmas morning when a taxi dispatcher called him at about 8:25 a.m. to say his brother had been stabbed and there was no pulse. He rushed to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre and a doctor told him his brother had died.

Afterward, Don Purcell, who has another brother in Moncton and a sister in Halifax, went to his son’s place to watch a granddaughter open gifts. Because the girl is just seven, the family didn’t tell her the news, so everyone had to act as though nothing had happened.

"We had to go out with a brave face," he said.

He said his brother’s three children are having a variety of difficulties, preventing the family from setting a funeral date.

Daughters Patricia and Dawn are in Edmonton caring for their mother, Sally McLellan, who is Ken Purcell’s ex-wife. She is near death and the daughters don’t want to leave her side.

"They want to be here but they just can’t chance it," Don Purcell said.

Meanwhile, son Sean Purcell, a millwright in Ontario, is working extra-long hours for the next few days before leaving for the funeral. Had he not done this, his plant would have been forced to close and others would have been out of work during his absence, Don Purcell said.

Don said his brother started driving a taxi almost 30 years ago, after rule changes requiring survival training for workers on oil rigs drove him out of that industry. The job involved guiding helicopters onto landing pads, but a fear of water kept Ken from completing the survival training. Had he kept that job, Ken would have been on the Rowan Gorilla I when it sank in December 1988. The 26 crew members were rescued after a horrifying night in a lifeboat, but Don said his brother would have rather gone down with the rig than spend a night in a small boat.

He said Ken had never been robbed as a cabbie and enjoyed meeting people.

Don had met some cab drivers through his brother and has been touched by their response to the murder.

They are trying to raise money to ease the burden on Ken’s family, despite their own financial constraints.

"They are a tight-knit family," Don said.

( darsenault@herald.ca)

Comment:

By

F. Stanley Boyd

Does this above article demonstrate how vulnerable people are at a time of great emotional stress and how this "Crime Reporter" is allowed to continually exploit people who are under such stress? Are there any restrictions that the Press will impose on themselves, or do they have to be regulated by another government agency, or body other than themselves? Is it true that if the Press are unable or unwilling to regulate themselves, then someone else will have to do it for them?

Do I continue to marvel at how this reporter lives with himself after so deliberately confronting people under great stress, using the name of the Chronicle Herald?

Have you asked yourself the questioned why the owner of this paper does not stop this baggering of people at times like this? Does he consider this good journalism? Am I sorry that in this community we do not have a media sensitive enough to allow people to grieve with some diginity?

Is it disappointing that the Justice Department allows this lynching of attitudes to continue in this newspaper against an accused 17 year-old young offender?

In the OJ Simpson trial Johnny Cochrane was accused of "playing the race card" who is playing the "race card" now? Who is playing the race card against a 17 year old boy? Can you possibly imagine the chances of this young offender ever proving his innocence, if in fact he is innocent?

"If the glove doesn't fit, you have to acquit, and if the glove does fit, you have to assist."