Leniency for Lionel Tate?

March 7 -- It was a tragedy that shocked the nation — the 1999 murder of a 6-year-old little girl, Tiffany Eunick, by her 12-year-old family friend, Lionel Tate. Perhaps as shocking as Tiffany's death was Lionel's conviction of first-degree murder and his sentence to life imprisonment.

Lionel's trial, broadcast on national television, raised serious questions about the way America prosecutes children. The state of Florida tried Lionel as an adult, and punished him with a severe, adult sentence. In the March 2001 sentencing, Lionel, then 14, became what is believed to be the youngest person ever sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Now, two years later, people are questioning whether justice was served, or whether Lionel should be shown some mercy. The prosecutor who won the case, even Tiffany's grieving mother, now feel that the punishment was too harsh for a child.

Tiffany's mom, Deweese Eunick-Paul, remembers meeting Lionel and his mom, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, after she and Tiffany moved to Broward County, Fla., near the resort city of Fort Lauderdale. The mothers, both divorced, became close friends and began helping each other take care of the children.

Eunick-Paul doesn't recall anything out of the ordinary about Lionel, who was 12 when she met him. He was a very large boy for his age, nearly 6 feet tall and 166 pounds. He never seemed argumentative or violent to her, she said, and he had played well with Tiffany, who, at only 48 pounds was about a third his size.

On the night Tiffany died, Lionel's mother was watching the kids. She is a Florida State Trooper and was scheduled to work an overnight shift. So, she fed the children and went upstairs to take a nap while Lionel and Tiffany played downstairs. Sometime after 11 p.m. that night, Eunick-Paul got a phone call. It was Lionel's mother, asking if Tiffany had any problems with asthma, because she wasn't breathing.

"I think I dropped the phone and started screaming 'my baby is gone.' " When she arrived at the hospital her motherly instincts proved, sadly, true. Tiffany was pronounced dead. But it wasn't until two days later, when the autopsy report was sent to the Broward County Sheriff's Office, that Lionel became a suspect.

Eunick-Paul recalls learning that Lionel actually killed Tiffany. Her reaction was "shock," she said, "It was just devastating. Really, really devastating."

The autopsy showed that Tiffany had suffered a crushed skull, broken ribs, more than 30 internal bruises. Her liver had been shredded and pushed through her rib cage. The case was sent to the Broward State Attorney's Office and the decision was made to charge Lionel as an adult — with first-degree murder.