Monica Foster, the public defender who handled the appeal of the 12-year-old Paul Henry Gingerich said, “The Constitution won today … This is a 12-year-old kid who did not get the due process protection of the U.S. Constitution.”
Gingerich is accused of helping to kill the stepfather of his 15-year-old friend. Authorities say Gingerich had fired one of the shots that hit the man Phillip Danner, 49, who was murdered. Following a two-hour hearing in which the defense attorney kept protesting that there was little time given to prepare of conduct a psychological examination, a Kosciusko County judge ordered the kid to be tries as an adult.
The ruling of the appellate court noted that at the time of his arraignment, Gingerich though the judge was obligated to find him guilty, he did not understand plea bargaining, did not understand many of the words used by the lawyer, and mostly, he did not understand the proceedings. The appellate court rejected the arguments of the state that the 12-year-old had given up his right to appeal as part of his plea.
Interestingly, the appellate court also found that a probation officer had misinformed the trial judge about the availability of private detention facilities.
Seems someone was in a hurry to get a 12-year-old boy into a prison and shut up for long time, and forgotten.
According to the authorities, Gingerich along with another 12-year-old were accomplishes to the murder of Danner, by his 15-year-old stepson on April 20, 2010. While Gingerich was part of the shooting, another boy had acted as the lookout and did not enter the building. The 15-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder as an adult, as did Gingerich upon clear coaxing by the authorities. The other boy, who did not enter the house, was sentenced to juvenile detention until he reaches the age of 18.
