MovieChat Forums > Bully (2001) Discussion > How would you have sentenced the Broward...

How would you have sentenced the Broward County Seven?


If you were the judge or on the jury, what sentences would you have passed on the perpetrators/conspirators?

After reviewing the facts of the case and some court documents, I think that I would have upheld the initial convictions - death sentence for Puccio (though the thought of the suffering that this could cause his parents would have probably prevented me from sticking to my guns), life without parole for Kaufman and Semenec, etc.

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[deleted]

Yes true. I think they all deserve life except Heather should be institutionalized.


Where I go. My spirit is free, I'm coming home. Where I go. Remember me but let me go.-Lacuna

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[deleted]

She had psychological problems even before it happened.


Where I go. My spirit is free, I'm coming home. Where I go. Remember me but let me go.-Lacuna

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A little late, but I agree 100%. All there really is, is hearsay from a group of kids who in the end were much worse. Most of the kids involved were very impressionable, when you have drugs and sex involved, especially if they were sharing partners as indicated, you have the mixing of a very bad situation. Now i'm not saying Bobby wasn't guilty and that he didn't do what they all claimed. But he isn't here to speak for himself. Plus Bobby wasn't the one who lured his friend out and brutally murdered him. More then likely Bobby was more reliant on Marty then Marty on Bobby, and we all know horny little girls. Jealousy can be a bitch..

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I know this is kinda late but ill answer the question & I know full well this all really happened. Bobby was Sewage a guilty he deserved as bad as he got him getting punished is my fav part of the movie. I have no heart for him no simpathy what so ever. I'm a heartless SOB when it comes to guilties & support Vigilante Justice. I'm not saying MArty is a saint because he did things that made him a Guilty too but int he end he did the right thing to bobby

Ace Lions

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(i don't know about "laws", but lets talk philosophically)

[HOW MUCH ONE LIFE COSTS?]

just watched the movie..
and it hit my mind to ask one crucial question..

HOW MUCH IT COSTS ONE LIFE?
what's the price?

i mean, there was one person/ one life at one end,
and 7 people on other hand.
so, was it fair to give all these punishments to 7 people in return of one life?

i was thinking, if only Marty would confess
and said it was him alone, who did it.
then only he would get the punishment,
and all other 6 could save their asses!


According to movie ending: (before appeal)
Heather = 7 years
Fatboy = 11 years
Ali 40 years
Donny = Life in Prison
Hitman = Life in Prison
Lisa = Life in Prson
Marty = Death by Electric Chair


I (philosophically) found it very very injustice.
If, for example, ONE LIFE IS EQUAL TO 100,
then this 100 will be shared among all 7,
bigger chunk will get who is most involved...

Now, if rule is, Life For Life (eye for eye, nose for nose,...),
then Marty already get Death Sentence,
then why other three Life in Prison
and Ali 40, which is almost Life in Prison
and two more..in many year???
Life in Prison is almost equal to Death Sentence.
You kill one person and 5 persons are killed in return (what the justice!)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
i want to say few words regarding Heather (and Fatboy)
Her involvement was ... negligible.
Her condition was like... she was just present at place
where her friends killed someone.
Is it really worth 7 years in prison.. just to be present there,
she even didn't watch it!!?
(for me, i think just few months in jail would be enough,
while they were already sorry for it.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Plus little bit FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
in old Arab tradition
one life was worth(equal to) 100 camels.
i just did little search on google,
how much one camel costs? there were different rates,
but someone said. it is equal to two goats, one sheep, one donkey.
if it is like that... then according to me regional area
these things may cost around 50,000. and multiplying it with 100 makes it Expensive Money, as Life is Expensive. so , itt Seems ... 100 Camels Fair Deal!
now, if some intelligent brains, work out and convert this Energy (Money) into another form, as Days... then it will buy how many Days/Months or Years??
Then,... these 7 will share "that amount" in Prison...

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Bobby Kent was a bully...He deserve to die...Marty Puccio was a victim in all this story...Anyway...

Marty Puccio 30 years
Donny Semenec 30 years
Derek Kaufman 30 years
Lisa Connelly 30 years
Derek Dzvirko 7 years
Alice Willis 10 years
Heather Swallers 5 years..

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I don't think any of them deserved life in prison. Yes, what they did was horrible, very stupid decision considering how many other things they could have done to rid Bobby from their lives but really. Were any of these people dangerous? Do you honestly think they would kill again if put back on the streets? I doubt it. Drugs were obviously a big influence in their lives, and none of them appeared to have very high intelligence levels (Hitman said it best "I don't know if that's saying much...") I just, couldn't help but feel sorry for most of them (with the exceptions of Lisa, Derek Kaufman and possibly Donnie). Very lost souls, especially Marty.

Anyway,
Marty: 25 to life (yes, he appeared to do most of the work in the killing, but he was tortured by this guy who entire life. Cut him the slightest bit of slack)

Derek K: Same (I don't really feel as bad for him as I do Marty, but he contributed to one murder in a life of otherwise petty crime. Considering how many criminals run free these days, I don't think this one from over 20 years ago needs to stay locked up much longer.

Donnie: Not sure on this one. I've heard the real life Donald Semenec was very strange and hard to crack, he lacked any real motive to contribute to the murder but had no qualms about stabbing the *beep* out of Bobby within a half hour of meeting him. In the movie it seemed like they made his character kind of the comic relief, but in real life I think he may have been the most psychotic.

Lisa: 10 years. The entire murder was her idea, but when it happened she didn't take part in it physically (unlike the rest of the girls she didn't mind watching though)

Ali: 10 years as well. Even though she didn't really plot it out as much as Lisa did, she was the one to lure Bobby out to the lake, a key part in the murder. All in all, I think she and Lisa contributed evenly, through different ways.

Derek D: 5 years. He helped carry the body, but pretty much unwillingly (he was under the impression that the guy ordering him to do so was a mafia hitman). Otherwise did not really contribute to planning the murder at all. Infact, why was he even there when Bobby was killed?

Heather: I wouldn't have even thrown that poor girl in jail. She just hid in the car the entire time and she obviously was never quite there mentally. Taking the drugs she was on and her childhood into account, I just would've ordered her more time in rehab and to seek some sort of psychiatric help.



I'm Tom Hanks and I want you in my bed.

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[deleted]

fair enough

& good bobbys dead

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Tough one. In America life really means your whole life! In the UK they would all be free by now.

Marty: 15-20 years.
Donnie: 15-20 years.
Hit man: 15-20 years.
Lisa: 5-10 years.
Ali: 5 years.
Heather: 1 year.
Derrek: 1 year.

They were dumb kids who used a lot of drugs and obviously had a *beep* up way of thinking. I can't help but sympathize with some of them after what bobby Did. Throwing their lives away for him was a dumb idea.



"Mother *beep* tries to rape me, I don't wanna give him a skin rash.. I wanna shut that *beep* down!"

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Marty (20 years) because he suffered a lot for his whole life
Kaufman (Life in prison) he didn't even know Bobby
Semenec (Life in prison) he didn't even know Bobby
Willis (40 years)
Connelly (Life in prison) she has been the mind of all this
Swallers (7 years)
Dzvirko (7 years)

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I'd give them medals, the key to the city, and a parade. They did what needed to be done.

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Life for everyone except cousin Derek, Ali, and Heather. Marty, Donnie, and the Hitman all took part in the commitment of the murder, and Lisa's the one who planned it out and instigated it to happen. The other three were certainly no saints, but I think the argument can be made that they were strung along and manipulated by the others, at least to an extent. Derek especially was clearly in over his head and being manipulated by his cousin.

All in all-

Marty- life without parole
Hitman- life without parole
Donnie- life
Lisa- life
Ali- 30 years
Heather- 10 years
Derek- 5 years


This is my hat now. This is totally my hat.

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Donnie I would have given 3 yrs probation. I mean the knife on went in like that much.

___________________
he left u NAKED in a DITCH!

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Lighter than they received.

One problem with letting any of them straight out on the streets, is that London to a brick, Bobby's father comes after him/her/them, or sends someone real after them.
He would likely be the type...middle-easterner.They no like-ee somebody takes out No1 Angelic can-do-no-wrong POS son.

the big problem for giving Marty a significant pass, is that this whole thing turned on his weakness. He had an alternative avenue for dealing with this worthless creep, than involving two car-loads of other teens and destroying their lives (such as they actually had lives to destroy anyway, which is questionable)

the keys were him and Lisa , and their relationship.
Lisa determined, perhaps correctly or maybe only half-correctly, that Marty's mistreatment of her originated from Bobby, and his powerful hold and undoubtedly foul influence on Bobby. Only with Bobby gone, could Marty be free to be the man he really was, and also just as importantly, to be truly HER'S.
It should have occurred to her, to simply tell Marty that Bobby had to go , as in, go as his friend, not go out of the world...maybe it did occur to her to do just that, but she was afraid of demanding Marty simply choose between them, as she would have rightly feared she might not like which way he chose.
Marty many times in his life, had railed about needing Bobby out of his life, he had demanded that his parents even re-locate so he could break free of him.
It is bizarre that at least in a pack situation, Marty found the courage, or maybe the rage, to butcher Bobby..more than once he had even found the courage to retaliate directly for Bobby's physical bullying of him...
Yet, maybe partly because thge guy lives on opposite side of street to him, he lacks the courage or will to just look him in the eye , and blow him off.

He would even have had the diametric support of Bobby's father--he despises Marty, almost everything about him,he strongly believes that it is Marty, and his directionless surfer beach culture American teen lifestyle, which is a negative influence on Bobby,(he either has no clue who and what his son is, or else accepts his "quirks" as normal) and wants the friendship ended anyway.

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