Slender Man Attempted Murders

I agree. Two years is nowhere near enough punishment. I would have thought that they would be imprisoned or in a prison mental facility until they were 21.

What they did to their friend was horrific and planned. Yes, they were young, but they were old enough to know that Slenderman wasn't real. I think the ring leader is a true psychopath--Morgan or something?--she was the one really into Slenderman and her friend kinda tagged along and helped, but it was clear from the articles and TV reports that she was the mastermind. 

I really think that if they release the girls that they may kill again--well the mastermind will--who knows what the other girl will do--if you'll help your friend kill somebody, what else will you do? 

I think it's amazing that the victim survived--she is an incredibly tough little girl. I really hate that first degree premeditated attempted murderers get shorter sentences just because their victims don't die.

Im on the bench with M in Carolina and littleMama. I don't think 2 years is enough. There ought to be quite a bit of psychological testing before anyone would ever entertain the idea of releasing either of them.

Though like M said I doubt that the leader girl is redeemable she seemed like a real psychopath.

And if released just who would be responsible for protecting the victim? Because I doubt that the one would ever leave her alone.

I found this on CBS news: link

I don't believe that 2 years is long enough for them to be removed from society, however, I question the wisdom of putting them into the prison system where they can be influenced by more hardened criminals and not have access to adequate psychological evaluation/treatment. I don't think you can judge a child by the same standards as an adult with a fully developed brain.

What am I missing? The linked article says that they have applied for a bond reduction after two years of pretrial detention, and that they are charged as adults. Unless that article is wrong, they have not been tried, pleaded guilty, or sentenced. They are asking for a bond reduction because that is pretty standard when you have been held pretrial for an extended length of time and your case has not been tried.

I don't recall the girls doing the murder because they thought the slenderman was going to "get" them. they did it to impress slenderman

No, not at all.

The fact that they haven't been tried yet is really strange to me. 

First of all, the defense should want the world to see two little girls. By waiting, the world instead sees two older girls. Even though everyone cognitively gets that the attack happened when they were young, it's hard to treat the defendants that way when you see them standing before you. 

Not sure what the delay is here. What ever it is, it does not bode well for the defense. However, they will likely receive credit for their time in custody, no matter how long the sentence is. 

Lisa 

My students have been following and researching this case and it is my understanding they were acting as a proxy for Slenderman. I also thought they were still pre-trial at the least determining competency or treating for competency restoration.

In theory, you have a federal constitutional right to a speedy trial (that doesn't have specific time limits) as well as (usually) a state constitutional or statutory speedy trial right (which often does have specific time limits).  In practice, serious cases routinely take longer than speedy trial requires.  There are a lot of reasons and it is hard to know exactly what is happening here -- cases where there are mental health issues usually do take longer (because sometimes the accused person decompensates/isn't competent to stand trial for a period of time, and because there are generally multiple rounds of mental health evaluations), although in my experience that is rarely the sole reason.  Often there are delays on the prosecution end for various reasons.  If their lawyers moved for a bond reduction, usually that reflects that the delay is on the state end (and you may well be right that their lawyers would prefer for them to look closer to the young age they were at the time).  I sometimes tactically moved for a bond reduction to get the judge to order the prosecutors to hurry up and try the case, even if I thought the judge probably wouldn't lower the bond (violation of speedy trial is a perfectly legitimate reason to ask for a bond reduction, even if you think the judge won't let your high-profile client out).  

When I was in practice I had a number of cases that were 2+ years old, and there wasn't a single one where I was the reason for the delay.  Most of the time the prosecutor for various reasons just wasn't ready to go.  Although there were a few where I wasn't sorry for the delay, because the longer that time goes by in many cases, the more likely it is that witnesses become unfindable or that a prosecutor offers a deal just to get a case closed.  

Can someone explain this whole slenderman thing to me? I read his wiki profile and read a couple articles on these girls. But I still don't understand how they thought he was real???

I think if there was mental insanity, they'd have found it by now and tried to plead that instead of having to go to trial. 

I wish the girls were redeemable. I hope they are. They killed to impress a fictional character and stabbed a FRIEND they had known for years NINETEEN times. 

Imagine stabbing into something living one, two, three, four, five--the mess, the screams, yet they continued. Nineteen times. 

I think that's the clinical definition of psychopath. 

I'm from a family of law enforcement. I've heard lots of horrible things people have done. This is one of the absolute worst--even if by an adult. 

ETA: if an adult who had done bad things stabbed someone 19 times it would be frenzied and horrible and unbelievable. This was a little.girl. who had not done anything like this before. 

They didn't just freak out one day and stab the girl in their room or hit her with a baseball bat because they were scared of the boogeyman. 

They lured her, stole a knife, snuck out of the house, walked how many miles into the woods, then stabbed her NINETEEN times. 

I do wonder if the 2nd girl stabbed her at all. I wonder if she was somehow not as old and mature and maybe she was somehow coerced--that's what my heart wants to think. She's been in lockup for 2 years and nobody has said, hey, she has diminished capacity, so I'm not holding out much hope.