Boy shoots Neo-? father because 'he thought he was doing the right thing'

Young_Chitlin
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(AP Reporter)- A boy who, aged ten, shot dead his neo-? father as he slept should not be jailed as he thought it was 'the right thing to do', his lawyers have argued.

Prosecutors want Joseph Hall, now 12, jailed for murder, citing a history of violent behaviour including choking a teacher with a telephone cord. He would become one of the youngest people in a U.S. correctional facility. But the boy's attorney says that he cannot be held responsible as he believed he was doing 'the right thing' by executing his 32-year-old father Jeff in Riverside County, California.

Just ten when he was arrested for the killing in May last year, the small, blonde child told police he pulled the gun from a closet and killed Jeff Hall - an unemployed regional leader of the National Socialist Movement who headed rallies at a synagogue. 'In reality, sometimes kids - just like all of us - do things because they want to, and he decided, as he put it, it was time to end the father-son thing,' said Michael Soccio, chief deputy district attorney.

'This child started at five years old being expelled from school for violence. His violence started way before his dad ever joined any ? party.'

The boy's public defender, Matthew Hardy, told the New York Times his client has neurological and psychological problems and was exposed to neo-? 'conditioning' at home. 'He's been conditioned to violence,' Hardy told the newspaper. 'You have to ask yourself: Did this kid really know that this act was wrong based on all those things?'
Mr Hall, who had ? tattoos on his head, took Joseph to rallies where they performed ? salutes together. They also went on night-time 'patrols' by the Mexican border wearing night-vision goggles to help them 'detain illegal immigrants'.

Opening statements are expected to begin today in the two-week trial of the boy, who is not being charged as an adult. Hall, who said he believed in a white breakaway nation, ran for a seat on the local water board in 2010 in a move that disturbed many residents in the recession-battered suburbs southeast of Los Angeles. The day before his death, he held a meeting of the neo-? group at his home.

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