Janet Sisk, founder of the Juvenile Justice Foundation of the Carolinas, shows a Free Christopher Pittman pin in Matthews, N.C., Friday, April 6, 2007. Sisk is an advocate for Christopher Pittman, a South Carolina teen imprisoned for murdering his grandparents when he was 12. (AP Photo/Jason E. Miczek). 
(AP Photo/MARY ANN CHASTAIN)
Defense attorney Karen Barth Menzies contends the antidepressant Zoloft drove Christopher Pittman to kill his grandparents.
Supreme Court Won't Hear Young Killer's Appeal
Monday, April 14, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to review a 30-year prison sentence for a teen who was 12 when he killed his grandparents in South Carolina.
Lawyers for Christopher Pittman wanted the justices to examine whether the long prison term for a child violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. With no possibility of parole, he will be 42 before he is released, they said.
Pittman is the only inmate serving such a lengthy sentence for a crime committed at such a young age, his lawyers said. The judge who sentenced him was prohibited by law from taking his age into account.
South Carolina contended the punishment is proportionate to the crime and said there is a national trend of increased punishment for young violent criminals.
Pittman used a shotgun to shoot Joe and Joy Pittman in their bed and then set fire to their home in 2001. During his trial four years later, Pittman's attorneys unsuccessfully argued the slayings were influenced by the antidepressant Zoloft — a charge the maker of the drug vigorously denied.
The Supreme Court appeal dealt only with the length of Pittman's sentence.
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