The defense closed its arguments for the trial of the boy of his neo-Nazi dad. Yahoo News reported on Jan. 8 that the defense did not call Joseph Hall, the defendant, to testify.
Joseph Hall has been on trial for killing his neo-Nazi dad. He is 12 years old now. The murder took place in 2011, when Hall was only 10 years old. The gun used to kill Jeffrey Hall, the neo-Nazi, belonged to the victim.
Matthew Hardy, the defense attorney, did not explain why Joseph Hall did not take the stand. He did explain that is a rare for a child so young to kill a parent. A criminologist testified there were 8,000 parents murdered by their children in the past 32 years, but only 16 were under the age of ten.
“It is hard to imagine a kid that age truly understanding what it means to commit murder,” Carol Shueng, from Oklahoma City, said. “It breaks my heart. He is too young to be going through such a thing.”
Superior Court Judge Jean Leonard will render a verdict in the case. There is not a jury so the judge will be making the decision as to whether or not Joseph Hall was responsible for the crime. Seeing that Joseph Hall is a minor, it is not a matter of guilt or innocence.
The plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was withdrawn on Monday. Matthew Hardy argued that the case should be thrown out, due to the age of Joseph Hall.
At the time of publication, it was unknown when Judge Leonard would render her verdict.
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