If there is one thing that the world agrees on unequivocally, it is that murder is a heinous crime, and that murderers should face severe consequences for their actions. Yet a story that I recently read has managed to blur the edges of morality when it comes to finding a punishment that befits the perpetrator. In 2011, Joseph Hall, son of white supremacist leader Jeffrey Hall, took his father’s gun and shot him in cold blood. At the time, Joseph was only 10 years old, but he was swiftly sentenced to 10 years in a juvenile facility in California. Yet the details of his arrest are fuzzy — after being interrogated for over an hour, the detective asked if Joseph wanted to give up his Miranda rights. The child agreed to this, without the presence of an attorney and without completely understanding what he was giving up. Not only that, investigators allowed his stepmother to be present in the room while Joseph was being questioned; due to her ties with the victim, there was definitely a conflict of interest that no one seemed to care about.
Nevertheless, Joseph’s prison sentence was just another misfortune to add to his lifetime of experience with hardship. Jeffrey, beloved by neo-Nazis for his racist rhetoric, had a vile temper and often acted violently toward his children and wife, especially when under the influence of methamphetamine. Not only that, but Joseph clearly had mental and behavioral disabilities, as made evident by the frequent outbursts he started having at a young age, and his below-average intelligence. In fact, Joseph didn’t even have much of a chance when he came into this world because his mother drank alcohol and used drugs such as heroin, LSD and meth while pregnant. These teratogens have been scientifically proven to cause lasting harm on fetuses after they are born, and Joseph is no exception.
Looking back at his interviews, Joseph’s defense argued that due to his disabilities, he was not able to tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the murder. It is even recorded that at the crime scene, he asked how many lives a person has, which implies that he was not fully aware that his father was permanently deceased.
What is truly upsetting about this entire case is that all of the adults in Joseph’s life failed him. His family did not provide him with a healthy, safe environment that every child deserves. Even though Child Protective Services had more than 20 complaints about the Hall residence prior to Jeffrey’s murder, the organization concluded that they had never found evidence sufficient enough to rescue Joseph from his abusive home. The police officers, who have sworn to protect the community, didn’t even take the time to make sure Joseph understood what giving up his Miranda rights meant. Joseph Hall, at the age of 10, was a victim in a vicious circle of neglect and indifference.
Of course I am not condoning the violent act of shooting and killing anyone — that would be absurd. However, I do believe this chaos could have been prevented if Joseph was cared for and his cognitive disabilities treated. California’s Senate and Assembly is still in the works of passing a bill that does not allow anyone under 18 to give up their Miranda rights before consulting a lawyer; the enactment of this legislation, however, would not affect Joseph’s sentence.
The more I familiarized myself with this story, the more my heart went out to Joseph. Even when his time in prison will be up, he will forever live with the stigma of being the crazy child who killed his father. Yet there are deeper layers to the story, and while his actions took the life of another person, it was also the result of years of wrongdoing and injustice inflicted upon him. Given his poor mental health status, his age and his lifetime of victimhood, it is hard for me to believe that Joseph knew exactly what he was doing when he shot his father.
The big takeaway from this tragedy is that we have to pay extra attention to a child’s health and well-being from a young age and we must provide them with medical and psychological care whenever needed. If we invest in wellness from the start, then I have no doubt in my mind that fewer situations like the Hall murder would arise.
Asha Kodan is a freshman biology major. She can be reached at ashakodan@ymail.com.
