2021 Oxford High School Shooting – The judge told the Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley that a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole is still on the table. Ethan Crumbley, who was found guilty of shooting and killing five people in a school, was dealt a series of devastating blows on Tuesday by a court. The most serious of these was the denial of the teen’s request to have the option of being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The judge did not agree with that and a lot of other things, too. In separate decisions that were both released on Tuesday, the Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe dismissed Crumbley’s motion to remove the possibility of him being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole while he awaits sentencing for the 2021 mass shooting that took place at Oxford High School and resulted in the deaths of four students and injuries to seven others.
Rowe said in his two-page ruling that “The Court finds that defendant’s argument is not persuasive and is without merit,” and he added that he “cannot and will not” dismiss the prosecution’s plea for life without parole. The judge also dismissed Crumbley’s plea to prevent school eyewitnesses from testifying at his future so-called Miller hearing. At this hearing, the judge will assess whether or not a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole is warranted for this particular instance.
At that hearing, the prosecution intends to call as witnesses, among others, a total of twelve pupils and two members of the faculty. The defendant’s legal team argued that their testimony would not be relevant and would be unduly prejudicial, but the judge disagreed with this assessment and would allow them to speak anyway. The judge pointed out that one of the considerations he is expected to evaluate at the Miller hearing is the circumstances surrounding the murders.
“Although this case has received a significant amount of media attention, this court has not been presented with evidence regarding the circumstances of the homicide… and cannot rely on media accounts of the event,” Rowe wrote in the opinion that the court issued. “Therefore, this court must allow the people to call any fact witnesses that can describe the circumstances of the homicide offense,” said the attorney for the people.
The judge also dismissed Crumbley’s request to appear at the Miller hearing in regular street clothes rather than his jail garb. The judge explained that he has seen Crumbley in jail clothes on a monthly basis since January 2022 “and would not be prejudiced seeing (him) in jail clothing again.” This was in response to Crumbley’s assertion that the judge would be prejudiced if he saw Crumbley in jail garb again.
