Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley’s Miller hearing to resume this week
Crumbley’s defense attorneys argue he can still be rehabilitated since he was just 15 at the time of the shooting.
Ethan Crumbley attends a hearing at Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac, Mich., on Feb. 22, 2022.
A hearing continues this week to determine whether the teen who killed four classmates at Oxford High School in November 2021 should spend the rest of his life in prison.
Defense attorneys argue Ethan Crumbley was so young at the time of the shooting that he can still be rehabilitated.
However, prosecutors described how then-15-year-old Crumbley took a handgun bought for him by his parents and calmly killed four students and shot seven other people — then waited to see the pain he’d inflicted. They say those actions demand a life sentence without the chance for parole.
But the defense counters that 15-year-old brains are not fully developed and Crumbley never received any mental health care.
Dr. Kenneth Romanowski, an expert on prison rehabilitation, said juveniles convicted of even the most heinous crimes can reform.
“Honestly, I think everybody has that potential to change, and I think Mr. Crumbley would be no exception to that rule. But I think he has to make that choice,” Romanowski says.
Crumbley’s representatives hinted that he might also take the stand when the hearing resumes.
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