MovieChat Forums > I Know My First Name Is Steven (1989) Discussion > can someone please explain the trials to...

can someone please explain the trials to me..


.. okay, first of all i am in my first semester in university and i am studying law, therefore i am very interested in the trials. i know that these stupid rules have changed after Parnell's mild sentence, but i still don't get it.
If you know the movie and book, you can skip the next two paragraphs^^
i watched to movie .. i think 10 times and i read the book and i am quoting:

Book:
Timmy's Trial:

... Judge Sabraw sentenced Kenneth Eugene Parnell to the maximum prison sentence allowed for second-degree kidnapping: seven years.

Steven's Trial:
... '... that the defendant be imprisonded in the State Prison of the State of California for the term of eighty-four months...*'
*...Under Californian law, sentencing for each seperate conviction (i.e. the kidnapping of steven and the conspiracy-to-kidnap Steven) had to be merged. Californian Law also prohibited Judge Sabraw from sentencing Parnell to more than twenty-four months for kidnapping Steven since he had already received the maximum sixty months sentence ... of kidnapping Timmy White.


Movie:
I hope i understood the words right, i'm not very good at english^^
Steven's Trial (i'll leave out Timmy's here):
...'It is the judgement of this court, that you be confined to the State Prison of California for the term of 84 months. Since you have already been sentenced to the maximum 84 months in the Kidnapping of timmy White the court is compelled to current statues (??) to order for the execution of 64 months for the term be stayed (??). A sentence of only 20 months is not in keeping...'


SO^^
I read everywhere that Parnell served 5 years from a 7-year sentence and got out on probation 1985 (pre-trial confinement time also counts, so after the 2nd trial he stayed ~ 3 years in prison).
From the 7 year sentence 20 months was for 'kidnapping Steven'. I don't get that from the book nor the movie?
Parnell was senteced to 7 years (the 84 months) for Timmy and than there would be 0 months left if the maximum sentence ARE 84 months? Why does the Judge in the movie say 60 months for Timmy when it were 84 months?
The book says the same thing at the '*' paragraph: 60 for Timmy and 24 (why now 24 and not 20?) for Steven but says 7 years in the upper paragraph.

So in my opinion Parnell did get 7 years for Timmy and 'nothing' for Steven?
Of did he get 60 months for Timmy and 24 for Steven? Argh ^^

What is with Probation? You need to serve 2/3 of your time, so Parnell did serve either 3.3 years (if he got 5 years for Timmy) or 4.6 years (if he got 7 years for Timmy) from TRIAL 1 and either 13.2 months or 15,8 months for Steven? Or did the serve 'nothing' for Steven?

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You have to remember that the trial took place in the early Eighties where, in terms of child abuse, things were quite backwards. The law and people in general had little understanding of how painful, degrading and humiliating it would be for a child to be abused consistently for seven years to the extent that he was brainwashed into just accepting it. As such, they almost made out that it was Steven's fault for not running away and letting Parnell abuse him. If this happened today, I doubt Parnell would have seen the light of day again.



"I always pretend to root for Gryffindors but, secretly, I love my Slytherin boys."~ Karen, W&G

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or at least he would have been sent to a psychological institution for his lifetime.
i think i got the part with the trials btw xD
american law (sorry^^) is really awful.. or it was, at least then, like you said.

austrian law (my country) is pretty strange too sometimes.. yesterday i learned, that a man/boy whatsoever cannot(!) be raped(!) according to the law(!).
what the *beep* so if a man/boy gets raped in my country, it would fall under 'sexual abuse' although rape would have more severe consequences.
a woman can be anal raped though (also, according to the law!), for reasons i don't really understand myself (something about the after being close to the female sex, whereas the penis from a man is too far 'away'... omg i don't know)
-.-

sorry for this post xD but i don't get it and i think i already found me a topic for my degree dissertation in four years :/

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