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This week, the remains of fifty-five bodies were found in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Florida School for Boys, in the panhandle town of Marianna. The reformatory school, which was operated by the state of Florida, and which closed in 2011, was notorious for its mistreatment of its students.
Infinitis
The link seems to be down.
The institution for wayward youth, which the state opened in 1900 and closed in 2011,
Grimpachi
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus
Well it does sound horrible but considering.
The institution for wayward youth, which the state opened in 1900 and closed in 2011,
Their deaths could have been from any number of things including polio outbreaks and such. We are talking about 111 years.
The first thing to do would be identifying cause of death, date of death, and who they are.
Oh and your link wasn't so good this one is better.
I am sure there is some wrong doing going on but you can't make arrests until they have the evidence to do so.edit on 31-1-2014 by Grimpachi because: (no reason given)
Grimpachi
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus
Well it does sound horrible but considering.
The institution for wayward youth, which the state opened in 1900 and closed in 2011,
Their deaths could have been from any number of things including polio outbreaks and such. We are talking about 111 years.
The first thing to do would be identifying cause of death, date of death, and who they are.
Oh and your link wasn't so good this one is better.
I am sure there is some wrong doing going on but you can't make arrests until they have the evidence to do so.edit on 31-1-2014 by Grimpachi because: (no reason given)
AutumnWitch657
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus
The "state" didn't do this . People who are abusive to children did. The state didn't raise a finger to these kids. Someone with fingers did. Don't marginalize this by blaming bureaucracy. There were real people not check signers that killed them. There have been a lot of examples of institutional abuse of children. But it's not the institution or the state it's sickos tasked with caring for these children who preform these atrocious acts. We have better screenings these days but still we know that the abusers still get near the children anyway. Orphanages are a thing of the past here for the most part. They have been replaced with foster care placement rather than institutional placement and even this process cannot guarantee that a child will be safe. Many kids have been abused in foster care too.
Some of the children died natural deaths, but the sheer number of bodies suggests that there may have been many killings, a possibility buttressed by eyewitness accounts. Yet Florida’s prosecutors have yet to file a single criminal charge, or even open a criminal investigation. To pass over crimes of this magnitude without investigation seems the very definition of injustice.
There is no statute of limitations for murder and other crimes causing death, which means that there is no legal bar to bringing charges. In Florida, all capital cases have long had no statute of limitations, and when these crimes were allegedly committed forcible rape was punishable by death. But there are challenges to prosecuting old crimes: given how much time has passed, it may be difficult to determine who was responsible for the killings, and many of the suspects, meanwhile, have already died, including the school’s longtime superintendent, Lenox Williams, who died in 2010. Some are still alive, including Troy Tidwell, an instructor at the school, who was accused of abuse in a class-action lawsuit filed by more than two hundred former students in 2009. (Tidwell denies the accusations, and the case was dismissed after a judge ruled that the statute of limitations on the charges had run out.)
In spite of these difficulties, a prosecutor still has many options in a case like this one. Scenes of mass death, like those caused by fires at night clubs in which the exits are blocked, are often prosecuted as cases of involuntary manslaughter. If the wantonly negligent operation of the school led to many deaths, the Florida School of Boys was like a deadly fire in slow motion. In addition, some of the school’s surviving employees and managers could potentially be prosecuted for felony murder—Florida law includes special provisions for deaths that occur during the abuse of minors—or, alternatively, members of the staff could be prosecuted as members of a conspiracy. There may also be fresher claims of obstruction of justice. A law student could probably find more options, let alone a dedicated prosecutor.
Some of the children died natural deaths, but the sheer number of bodies suggests that there may have been many killings, a possibility buttressed by eyewitness accounts.
Tusks
One death, on average, every couple of years?--for how many inmates? How many died during the influenza outbreak?
For 50 of those years, there were no vaccines and no antibiotics. Gonna need more info or we'll just be jumping at conclusions.
In 1968, Florida’s governor at the time, Claude Kirk, said of the school, “Somebody should have blown the whistle a long time ago.” There have long been allegations of beatings, torture, and sexual abuse there; it now appears that some students were killed.
Grimpachi
Florida laws have changed over the years, and you can't prosecute someone for a law that wasn't a law at that time.
There is no statute of limitations for murder and other crimes causing death, which means that there is no legal bar to bringing charges. In Florida, all capital cases have long had no statute of limitations, and when these crimes were allegedly committed forcible rape was punishable by death. But there are challenges to prosecuting old crimes: given how much time has passed, it may be difficult to determine who was responsible for the killings, and many of the suspects, meanwhile, have already died, including the school’s longtime superintendent, Lenox Williams, who died in 2010. Some are still alive, including Troy Tidwell, an instructor at the school, who was accused of abuse in a class-action lawsuit filed by more than two hundred former students in 2009. (Tidwell denies the accusations, and the case was dismissed after a judge ruled that the statute of limitations on the charges had run out.)
Gonna need more info or we'll just be jumping at conclusions.