I don’t think this woman should be prosecuted for murder or anything close, possibly not at all. In one sense she probably has been “punished enough.” But in another sense, a child is dead, and she is at least indirectly the reason–due to a deliberate action on her part, though not deliberately murderous. By comparison, I don’t think that a person who accidentally runs over a child should go to prison for it–but sometimes there needs to be a trial. (Were there indications the driver was overly negligent–drunk, for instance?)

In this case, the intention wasn’t death–but the intention WAS harm, and that should matter. And also, I don’t know if you remember being 13, but I do. One of two years of my life that would qualify as “worst ever,” and I’d probably give it the prize for worst year, simply because I didn’t have the maturity or resources to deal with life. We can expect a 13-year-old to be immature and not able to deal with life without adult support. An adult stooping to immature cruelty is not acceptable. In other words, yes the girl might seem to be “foolish and stupid”–but she’s 13, and we can rather expect foolish and stupid at that age. And a 13-year-old under this kind of pressure is quite likely to cave under it. And “everybody gets made fun of” does NOT cover this, any more than “everyone gets hurt sometimes” would be adequate when talking to someone who has been raped.

When I was 14, a 13-year-old acquaintance killed himself. I had never attempted suicide, but I understood in a way only a recent 13-year-old can, and the adults talking about how “silly” he had been only showed me they didn’t have a clue how hard it is to be 13.

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That is pretty awful. I had sort of similar things happen to me when I was a kid (not on that level, but I got mocked a lot, and had boys pretend to like me to make other boys laugh). What this woman did was wrong–but to call it murder is a huge stretch. I can’t imagine even the parents wanting her prosecuted for murder. And the parents of this girl really should have been monitoring her computer use too, and on top of the situation. I’m not saying they’re to blame, but they clearly weren’t on top of it, either. A 13-year-old shouldn’t have unlimited computer access, as I assume she did; this got to such a level because nobody was looking out for her.

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Even if the girl did not have a history of depression, this was a terrible thing to do to a child/teen. It would have been hurtful enough to another adult, but teens are so emotionally vulnerable.

I had a similar-but-different thing happen to me when I was about 15. My best friend’s former best friend (from the town she used to live in) was visiting her, & they called me. BF’s-former-BF pretended to be a guy who really wanted to meet me. (I was overweight & had not yet had a boyfriend.)

She pretended to “like” me over the phone & talk about how I was going to be “his” girl when we all got together. I was so thrilled!

Then they let me in on the joke. They thought it was hilarious that I believed it. I was humiliated.

32 years later, I can still remember how awful that felt. And that was nothing like what this young girl experienced.

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What exactly does this mean:
“accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the teen”

And this:
“…without having to ship the case to a different state…we have to go to federal courts in other states to make a stretching leap argument.”

On top of that, how do you define “harassing a minor?” What reasonableness condition do you place on that? Is jurisdiction limited or because it’s the internet, all you have to do is prove that some part of the transmission “traveled” through the state you want to prosecute in?

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I don’t know how you would get a murder/manslaughter charge out of what we know about this, Kiyoshi. These people didn’t touch this child physically. They weren’t present. She killed herself. It was her choice. Moreover, you’d have to prove intent, remember?

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I don’t know how you would get a murder/manslaughter charge out of what we know about this, Kiyoshi. These people didn’t touch this child physically. They weren’t present. She killed herself. It was her choice. Moreover, you’d have to prove intent, remember?

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I doubt that she’ll want to risk being found guilty and having to serve a 20-year sentence. She can probably plead out and serve a mere 5-7 years.

Of course, it’s still not clear to me why she couldn’t be charged with involuntary manslaughter or depraved-heart murder. Justice would be served if Drew and her daughter spent the rest of their days behind bars. The mother will probably only serve a few years. The Drew daughter, who instigated the whole affair, will probably not serve any time for her crimes.

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..a whole other story.

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