Reed Karter Kane - Boy with a knife : a story of murder, remorse, and a prisoners fight for justice

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR BOY WITH A KNIFE

Through skillful storytelling and rigorous research, Jean Trounstine shows us why young people engage in crime and violence, and how we can create rehabilitation and redemption for those caught up in the system. This book is an argument for why youth justice should move to the top of our national priorities if we want safe and equitable communities for all Americans.

Piper Kerman, author of the New York Times bestselling Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Womens Prison

Jean Trounstine tells Karter Reeds story with warmth, with complexity, with nuance. She weaves in his background, trial, conviction, imprisonment in the context of larger contemporary public and scholarly debates about punishment and especially, adolescents. She frames a critical contemporary debate with a very human face. We see through Karter the mistakes that we have made and critically, how much more needs to be done. This is essential reading for anyone who cares about justice.

Nancy Gertner, former U.S. federal judge, named one of The Most Influential Lawyers of the Past 25 Years by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

Jean Trounstine has delivered a searing wake-up call about the need to reform and redeem our juvenile justice system. Sentencing children as adults is neither productive nor morally sound, and the tale of Karter Kane Reed exemplifies that truth.

Shon Hopwood, author of Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Court Cases, and Finding Redemption

Boy with a Knife is a masterful narrative rooted in the tragedy of a life lost and another launched into a complex journey of transformation. It is a must reada compelling story and a deep reflection for teachers and students, advocates and policymakers, parents and youth on the meaning of justice.

Robert Kinscherff, PhD, JD., William James College, National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, and the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital

Gripping and important, Jean Trounstines real-life account about a boy thrust into an adult prison unfolds is heart-shattering drama. Written with deep compassion and grace, Trounstine brilliantly proves that people canand do changeand so, too, can the system. A must-read for anyone who cares about justice and forgivenessand that should be all of us.

Caroline Leavitt,New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You

Boy With A Knife is a devastatingly detailed indictment of a criminal justice system that routinely sends youth to adult jails and prisons, yet its a story infused with much needed hope. A must read for anyone interested in criminal justice reform.

TJ Parsell, author of Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Mans Prison

With meticulous research, Jean Trounstine mirrors what Ive seen in U.S. prisons for over thirty-five years as a speaker and workshop facilitator, where I witnessed an increasing number of troubled youth being thrown away, abused, and in too many cases, prepared as higher-end criminals, all at taxpayers expense. Read this book and take action. Anybody can be saved. Anybody can change. Its time our laws and justice systems aligned to this moral and biological fact.

Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and Hearts & Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times

Jean Trounstine has opened a window into the disaster of American juvenile justice. The story of Karter Kane Reed serves not only as a cautionary tale of what can happen to kids who commit serious crimes, but of how American juvenile justice policies actually hamper rehabilitation and the correction of flawed character. Hands down this book is certain to be a top criminal justice read for 2016. Also certain is that Trounstine will leave her readers with deeply personal questions about how best to deal with juvenile justice.

Chris Zoukis, award-winning incarcerated writer and author of College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons

Copyright 2016 by Jean Trounstine.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher. Please direct inquires to:

Ig Publishing

Box 2547

New York, NY 10163

www.igpub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Trounstine, Jean R., 1946- author.

Title: Boy with a knife: a story of murder, remorse, and a prisoners fight for justice / Jean Trounstine.

Description: New York, NY: Ig Publishing, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016005389

Subjects: LCSH: Reed, Karter Kane. | Murderers--Massachusetts--Biography. |Prisoners--Massachusetts--Biography. | Criminal justice, Administration of--Massachusetts. | Youth--Effect of imprisonment on--Massachusetts. | Social justice--Massachusetts. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Penology. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General. | LAW / Criminal Law / Sentencing. |TRUE CRIME / Murder / General. Classification: LCC HV6248.R44 T76 2016 | DDC 364.152/3092--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016005389

ISBN: 978-1-63246-025-7 (ebook)

For Karter Kane Reed and his family

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

There is another Lady Justice, less well-known than the fair-minded goddess that adorns our courthouses. She is Lady Justice Red, a distortion of the icon in robes and blindfold. Lady Justice Red is not the impartial arbiter of cases that come before her. Her sword lacks the acuity to cut through the evidence for and against those who appear before her. Rather than reason, Lady Justice Red relies on dice, cupped in one side of the Scales of Justice, which she rolls when judging the unfortunate.

And so it was, in a country ruled by Lady Justice Red, that sixteen-year-old Massachusetts high school sophomore Karter Kane Reed was charged with first-degree murder and ultimately sentenced to life in an adult prison. According to the Boston Herald, on April 12, 1993, Karter stormed into a high school classroom and stabbed an unarmed boy named Jason Robinson, also sixteen years old.

While Karters stabbing of Jason Robinson is not in dispute, the penalty for the crime is. Karter was tried and convicted as an adult, sent to prison for the rest of his life, with only the possibility of obtaining his freedom after serving fifteen years. At the time of Karters sentencing, the United States was a country that set controversial boundaries where childhood ended and adulthood began in terms of criminal responsibility.

At the time of Karters arraignment, prosecutors could suggest, and even insist, that sixteen-year-olds were incapable of change, ignoring what science has since proved: that teenagers are not little adults, psychologically, physically, or socially. Teens who killed could be transferred to the adult system, where they would mix with the general prison populationthat is, if they werent kept in solitary confinement, to protect them from rape and other bodily harm. Notably, these imprisoned youths were often refused the benefit of education or therapy, programs that are more available in the juvenile system; nor were they protected from psychological harm.