AL - Clinton Weeks, 10, dies in clothes dryer, Arab, 4 July 2004

OH GOD. Well, I don't think he should be charged with murder. I have a 14 year old and if I could count how many times shes done REAL dumb things I'd be rich.

I think he should be charged with negligence causing death or something but MURDER? He didn't mean to kill him. How sad for everyone.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationw...,0,7325586.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

"The 14-year-old admitted to turning the dryer on, and we have enough information to charge him with murder," said sheriff Greg Bartlett"

They must have some other info on the accused, maybe he has a past history with the law?

You'd have to hold the door shut to keep anyone inside. That would mean someone didn't want him to get out, and if a 14 year old doesn't realize that a dryer is for removing the moisture from clothes with extreme heat, he should be working on an insanity defense. The best you might hope for is manslaughter. A ten year old can easliy open almost any household dryer door from the inside (they are made that way on purpose). Wet, heavy quilts will push the door open on our dryer, but it IS 20 years old.

if he is charged as a juvenile, he can only be found to be "delinquent" and incarcerated until age 18. if he is certified as an adult for purposes of trial he can be charged with involuntary manslaughter up to murder, depending on the facts, and sentenced accordingly. the DA will decide what to charge after the judge decides whether he will be tried as an adult...and in the deep south he probably will be certified as "adult". he needs a psychiatric exam before anything, and any lawyer will request it. mental age will be explored as well. sounds like stupid teenage games gone amok, as in the program "jackass".

For the record, my dryer "locks" the door when it starts. I do not know if it would be possible to open it from the inside or not when it is going. It is one of the new, high speed, bearingless dryers. It spins at some really high rpm, which right now I don't know what it is. It is possible that one of these kinds of dryers was involved. You can stop it and open it up again if you need to, but it would take it several seconds to come to a stop. I'm not defending any actions here, I'm jsut putting this info on the table.

OK, that's scary to me. What brand is it, and how does it "Lock"? Like, you cannot open it unless you turn it off? (We need a new dryer, and I don't want that type if I can avoid it) Thanks.

Ghostwheel said:

OK, that's scary to me. What brand is it, and how does it "Lock"? Like, you cannot open it unless you turn it off? (We need a new dryer, and I don't want that type if I can avoid it) Thanks.

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It is an LG, front loader. It is one in a set with a front loading washer. Right now you can only get them at Best Buy. As for how it locks, when you turn it on, you hear a click and a light comes on that says door locked. I haven't ever tried to open it without hitting the stop button first. There wasn't a need to do so. I think the reason that it locks is so that the clothes don't hit the door and open it up. Both the washer and dryer are made to be super high capacity and you can stuff the things to the gills and still get everything clean. The washer holds an entire queen sized bedding set (comforter, sheets, blanket, and pillowcases). Its amazing. But when you have it stuffed full, things hitting the door would easily open it without this locking mechanism. It may have some sort of failsafe that if a certain amount of force is applied, it still opens from the inside, but I'm not sure about that. I will have to go back and read the manual. It never occurred to me that my daughter might get stuck inside it and have it turned on. I tend to be pretty clueless when it comes to stuff like that.

This happened near me. The TV news have reported that the 14 year old turned the dryer on and held the door. They stated that he knew the 10 year old boy was inside. I do not know if this is true or not but it is so sad. They said the dryer gets to 200 degrees very fast.

I have taken a close look at my dryer and it does not lock when turned on. Only the washer does that. I'm not sure if that is better or not. But, at least now I know that it is a "safe" dryer. At least as safe as any dryer could be.

From February 2005:

http://legacy.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/050226/boy.shtml

A family member confirmed that a 14-year-old youth was tried in Morgan County District Court this week for the July 4 clothes dryer death of a 10-year-old boy at Ryan's Crossroads.

Morgan officials refused to confirm that there was a trial, therefore the outcome of the trial is unknown.

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