Payton Leutner: The Girl Who Killed Murderer

On May of 2014 a bicyclist found a badly wounded twelve-year old girl was trying to crawl out of a forest. The victim was 12-year-old Payton Leutner who had been stabbed multiple times. The girl was stabbed in her torso, arms and legs a total of 19 times. The victim was rushed to the hospital and what police learned later would be a case that shocked the whole country. The victim indicated that her friends, Morgan Geyser and Anisss Weier had stabbed her. The police learned that the victim was supposed to have been at a sleep over at Morgan Geyser house. After the twelve-year-olds left their friend to bleeding in the forest they started walking with the purpose of finding Slender Man and living with him in his mansion. The girls were found by

One picture showed a girl standing over a dead body next to her was text that read, "I love killing people". One of the girls also claimed that she took part in the stabbing because she afraid her family would be harmed. The girls made various statements to police that suggested that this was a planed out event and that the main desired outcome of their plan was to kill their

The girl's alleged attackers have been charged as adults with first-degree intentional homicide. The girls each face up to 60 years in prison if convicted as adults although if the case moves down to juvenile court the girls could be out by 25. Due to questions regarding the girl’s mental heath condition and their young age defense attorneys argue both girls would receive better mental health treatment in the juvenile system. This is a controversial decision by the court because many studies show that children are not fully developed in their teenage years. Studies also show that juveniles who receive harsher penalties due to the fact that they are when they are tried, as adults are not "scared straight" or go on to have a stable life and become a model citizens. In fact, after their release, they tend to become repeat offender sooner and more often than those treated in the juvenile system. A study found that 76% percent of robbers prosecuted in criminal court were arrested again compared to 67% of those tried in juvenile