Two years into Lionel Tate's prison term, a court says he may not have grasped what was happening.
By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published December 11, 2003
He was 12 when he killed a 6-year-old playmate. Defense attorneys said he was practicing wrestling moves he had seen on TV.
He was 14 when sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Now 16, Lionel Tate is getting another chance.
Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal said Wednesday that Tate should get a new trial. The court ruled that a judge in the case should have scheduled a pretrial hearing to ensure the Broward County youth was mentally capable of understanding the case against him.
"That's fantastic," Tate screamed, according to an attorney who spoke to him by phone Wednesday.
Tate deserved such a hearing, judges said, because he was so young at the trial and because developmental delays lowered his mental age to 9 or 10. He also had no previous experience with the justice system, the judges noted.
The appeals court opinion is a rare example of Florida courts raising the possibility that children can be too young to understand the adult charges filed against them.
"I think it's important because it focuses attention on the fact that age can be and should be a factor in deciding whether somebody's competent," said University of Florida law professor Christopher Slobogin, an expert in legal competency.
Slobogin said Wednesday's decision was "one of the few cases that directly addresses the issue of when a competency evaluation is required in juvenile cases."
The question of how much children understand in adult court proceedings has become increasingly relevant in recent decades as prosecutors have charged more youths with adult crimes.
Some experts say it should not come as a surprise that youths have difficulty understanding complex decisions in high-stakes legal cases. "Where would they be if they weren't (in court)?" asked Luanne Panacek, executive director of the Hillsborough Children's Board. "They would have to make decisions about how to use their lunch money and they don't even make good decisions there."
Tate's case sparked international publicity when he was charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the death of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick in 1999.
His attorneys said Tate, then 170 pounds, killed 48-pound Tiffany accidentally while practicing pro wrestling moves. Tiffany suffered a fractured skull, brain contusions, a partly detached liver and injuries to her pancreas and kidneys. At the time, Tate's mother was asleep in the Pembroke Park house she shared with him.
In Wednesday's opinion, a three-judge panel said the judge in the case should have scheduled a competency hearing before Tate's trial and should have granted his attorneys' request to schedule one afterward.
Tate's attorneys said in a March 2001 hearing after the trial that Tate could not understand the concept of waiving attorney-client privilege - a legal step that would have allowed his attorneys to testify why they thought he was not competent.
When Circuit Judge Joel Lazarus asked Tate if he understood, Tate said no.
So the judge ordered Tate to be examined by mental health experts. Prosecutors objected on a technicality, and the court withdrew its order. The court later denied another request.
However, one expert for the state evaluated Tate before trial and concluded that he was legally competent.
U.S. Supreme Court decisions have held that people can't receive a fair trial unless they are mentally capable of understanding it, said professor Robert Batey of the Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport.
When a defendant is declared incompetent, the case is suspended until he or she becomes competent, such as in the case of a mentally ill person who stabilizes after treatment. It's not the same as being declared not guilty.
Now that the 4th District Court of Appeal has ruled, the state Attorney General's Office has 15 days to decide whether to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court or ask for a rehearing, said spokeswoman Joann Carrin.
If the attorney general takes no action, the State Attorney's Office in Broward County, scene of the crime, can decide whether to retry the case or enter plea discussions.
The trial might never have occurred if Tate had taken a plea deal that would have kept him in a juvenile facility for three years and on probation for 10.
Tate, his mother and attorney turned it down, only to be devastated later when he received a life sentence, the only sentence the trial judge could have imposed based on his murder conviction.
The appeals court decision Wednesday will provide an opportunity for plea-bargaining in the case, Batey said. Although the three-judge court agreed with Tate's appellate attorney on the matter of competency, it was not swayed by defense attorneys' contention at trial that Tiffany died accidentally.
"None of the experts, not even those for the defense, believed that the injuries were consistent with "play-fighting,' or that they were accidentally inflicted," the judges said.
Nonetheless, Tate's supporters exulted Wednesday.
"I can't even think straight right now," said Tate's mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, by telephone from Puerto Rico. "I've got to keep thanking God and thanking everyone for praying and thank the judges."
"I feel like somebody lifted a 200-pound weight off my head. It's just a beautiful thing and I hope now that Lionel's going to have a chance at a life," said Jim Lewis, Tate's trial attorney.
Tiffany's mother, Deweese Eunick-Paul, could not be reached. She has previously said that Tate did not deserve a life sentence and that 10 to 20 years in prison might be enough.
- Information from the Associated Press, the New York Times and Knight-Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.
