ANOTHER MURDERER I KNOW

I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think I taught this guy public speaking for a semester when he was a freshman. From the Houston Chronicle:

Teenager to die for murdering two neighbors

Unmoved by his mother's description of him as "a kind and gentle soul," a Harris County jury decided Wednesday that 18-year-old Robert Acuna should die for murdering two elderly neighbors in a quiet Baytown subdivision.

Prosecutors offered little explanation for why the Sterling High School junior, who worked part time at a fast-food restaurant, shot James Carroll, 75, and his wife, Joyce, 74, last fall.

"He has evil in his heart," Assistant District Attorney Renee Magee told jurors as she urged them to return a death sentence.

Acuna was 17 at the time of the murders. The U.S. Supreme Court plans to consider later this year whether it is constitutional to execute killers who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes.

Click here for the rest.

Even if he's not the person I'm thinking of, it's goddamn sad anyway.

I looked up his picture, but it's not quite the face I remember--he's older now, manly, more filled out; the kid I knew was skinny, a bit awkward. But the eyes are the same, deep and soulful. The more I think about it, the more I feel like he's the one.

This is really fucking sad.

The Robert Acuna I knew was shy and quiet, more like the "kind and gentle" soul described by his mother than the cold blooded killer he apparently turned out to be. I didn't know him well because he was so introverted, but the Chronicle article makes clear what happened to him:

Witnesses described Acuna as a quiet loner who had begun to project a gangster image, wearing flashy jewelry, a gold tooth and a large belt buckle inscribed with the word "Pimp."

All teenagers are in the process of developing their identities, and as all adults know, the process can sometimes be brutal, especially in the pressure-cooker high school environment, where personality and reputation are everything. Baytown's Sterling High School is an especially intense place which has left me in something of a state of shell shock after my six years of teaching there. I have a strong personality and sense of identity; I can only imagine what it must be like for someone with low self-esteem and a relatively undeveloped sense of individuality: Robert Acuna became tired of his sense of weakness, of being just a face in the crowd. He gravitated toward an image of strength, one glorified by both pop culture and teen society. In his weakness, he sought to prove himself worthy of respect, emulating the gangster lore that most teenagers take with a grain of salt. In his weakness, he committed the gravest of sins.

How can Renee Magee look into his soul and know that Robert Acuna "has evil in his heart?" It infuriates me the way these self-righteous prosecutors make such moral judgments. Robert Acuna committed a heinous act of evil, and he must pay for his crime, but I don't believe he is evil. I believe he's just a kid, and this whole thing is awful.

Killing him won't bring back his victims, but it will devastate his family and loved ones. He is in custody now, and has been found guilty. He won't be killing anyone else. Why does the state think that another death will make things better?

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