ABSTRACT
On July 28, 1999, in Miami, Florida, 12-year-old Lionel Tate was playing with a 6-year-old girl, Tiffany Eunick, whom his mother, Kathleen Tate, was babysitting. Kathleen decided to take a nap in her upstairs bedroom, leaving Lionel and Tiffany downstairs. Mrs. Tate was awakened by noise from downstairs, where she found Tiffany unconscious. Lionel had been demonstrating with Tiffany some wrestling moves he had seen on television. The girl died of her injuries, and after being tried as an adult in criminal court, Lionel was sentenced to life in prison. In 2004, his sentence was commuted (reduced) by Florida’s governor, Jeb Bush, to correspond to the nearly 5 years he had already served, but he was subsequently convicted of gun charges in connection with a robbery, sentenced to 30 years, and still faces life in prison on the robbery charge (USA Today, May 20, 2006).
