It is being reported on July 27, 2016 that the two 12-year-old girls who stabbed their classmate 19 times will stand trial as adults. An appeals court in Madison, Wisconsin decided that they should be tried as adults, facing up to 65 years in prison. If they were tried as juveniles, they would only be incarcerated up to the age of 18.
The two girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, are now 14-years-old. Both of them are reported to have been suffering from mental illness. The two friends thought that they had to make a sacrifice to appease a fictional internet character called Slender Man.
The victim, Payton Leutner, was stabbed 19 times, in the woods and managed to drag herself to a sidewalk where she was spotted by a passerby.
“Experts testified that one of the girls has schizophrenia and an oppositional defiant disorder that requires long-term mental health treatment. The other girl has been diagnosed with a delusional disorder and a condition known as schizotypy, which a psychologist testified made her vulnerable to believing in Slender Man.”
Since the attempted homicide was premeditated and planned, the lower court as well as the appeals court determined that they should be sentenced as adults. “According to a criminal complaint, the girls plotted for months before they lured Payton Leutner into a park in Waukesha, about 20 miles west of Milwaukee, and attacked her with a knife.”
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