Shimeek a good boy! Shimeek don't do bad things!

Everybody needs to feel sorry for Shimeek Gridine. Shimeek is serving a 70 year sentence in Florida. In 2009 when he was 14 years old, Shimeek took a 12-year-old with him to hold up and shoot a man behind a service station in Jacksonville. The man survived, and Shimeek was charged with attempted murder and robbery. Shimeek is where he needs to be.

But not according to his family. Here are some quotes from an appellate brief filed on his behalf:

• Marilyn Gridine, Mr. Gridine's aunt, testified that Mr. Gridine "is a very intelligent guy, he is very sweet, he is really nice." (I bet his victim thought so, too, when he was staring at the barrel of a shotgun). Mr. Gridine "got in trouble this time, but he don't really do stuff like that." (Gosh, if he doesn't do stuff like that, why did he enter a guilty plea?) He "doesn't do things bad, he don't do nothing wrong really." (Really?)
• When asked why Shimeek would do such a thing, his uncle testified that Shimeek had "lost a lot [of] people back to back," including "his pops" and "his closest cousin." (Yes, I remember when my loved ones died, the first thought that popped into my head was to go out and rob and shoot somebody). The uncle also says that Shimeek "don't do things like this."
• Tyresha May, Mr. Gridine's aunt, described Mr. Gridine as "a good kid" who "never really got into any trouble." (That's not true -- earlier in the brief, we learn that Shimeek had been charged with petit theft and completed a pretrial diversion program. In February of 2009, Shimeek was charged with resisting an officer without violence, for which he was placed on probation. In 2008, Shimeek had received anger management counseling after a fight at his middle school).
• Cousin Sharissa Graham did not "see why he got in trouble, but he is a role model to me, he is my hero." (If Shimeek is truly her hero and role model, law enforcement better keep a close eye on her, too).

And we're all supposed to be appalled that the judge in this case decided not to take a chance on Shimeek shooting any other innocent victims. Kudos to the judge!


 
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/clerk/briefs/2012/1201-1400/12-1223_ini.pdf