How he survived 18 years in solitary confinement (CNN)

[ItsjustMe]

When Ian Manuel was 13, he shot a woman during a robbery. Although she survived, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, and served 18 consecutive years in solitary confinement. CNN's Michael Smerconish talks to Manuel about how he survived and was granted his release.

[secondwind]

1. I have no words.

[Warpy]

2. I do, but they'd get me kicked off DU

Florida SUCKS. I've read of other children tried and sentenced as adults in other states. They were sent to a high security juvenile facility until they actually were adults and then transferred to prison. Putting a kid into an adult prison is cruel. Putting anyone into long term isolation is torture.

I hope the ACLU is looking at this case. Florida will likely need to be sued into doing any better.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. So fucked up on so many levels ... Solitary past a certain timeframe

(generally accepted as 1 month but even that seems excessive), is torture, plain and simple.

18 years is totally freaking unacceptable

That's leaving aside how fucked up it is to try a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD ... as an adult

[iluvtennis]

7. Ditto. nt

[burrowowl]

3. K&R!

[cab67]

4. The same force driving this will also drive Florida to get rid of stand-your-ground laws.

Florida was the first state to allow prosecutors to charge minors as adults because of a string of high-profile violent crimes committed by juveniles against tourists from abroad. Several European countries issued travel advisories against visiting Florida. This impacted the tourist industry.

Florida is basically a petri dish of special interests, but tourism is the most powerful of them. I've got friends there who say "If the Mouse says 'jump,' the legislature doesn't bother to ask 'how high' - it just jumps as high as it can."

The result has been tragic, as this case demonstrates.

But if any good will come of tourism's grip on Florida, it will arise after some yahoo shoots a tourist, claims he or she felt threatened, claims "stand your ground," and walk. Even if the tourist wasn't a threat and was shot as a matter of mistaken identity or mistaken presumptions, that person will walk. People in other countries already take a dim view of the US because there are so many guns out there, but if one of their citizens can be shot with no consequences whatsoever to the shooter, they'll avoid Florida once tourism bounces back from the pandemic.

The NRA is a powerful lobby, but it's like a skull crawler against Kong. It's like a garter snake against a heron. It will be fighting out of its depth.

I don't WANT this to happen - but given how many people out there have guns, these ignorant laws make such an event inevitable.

[SheilaAnn]

6. He must be very strong mentally. God bless him, I hope the rest of his life is good for him. n/t