Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

Nathaniel Abraham was just 11 years old when he found himself in the middle of one of the most controversial cases in the history of the United States of America.

nathaniel abraham was just 11 years old when he found himself in the middle of one ofr the most  controversial murder cases in the  history of the  United states of america the case scandalized  the country and  almost everyone responded with outrage.

a murder  case

but folks on nathaniel’s block his own neighbors well, they weren’t particular schocked .

he might  have been little  measuring no more than 4 feet and weighing a little under 65 pounds  but he was also  but he was  also a thorn in the side of everyone inthe neighborhood

a danger to the community 

he threatened  one neighbors  grandsons all the time and he threw at one neighbors house, an 11 -year old girl  shareda similar sentiment  because according to her  when they both was nine  nat had threatened with a gun.

so  as nathaniel abraham’s murder case began to take  its hold in the the center in the center of  public  counsciousness it  became clear that his entire block had turned against him.

as  disturbing as these allegations sounded it seemed like they were true all of his  neighbors wanted him locked up.

exept one….

only  one neighbor on nate’s block  came to his defense when the cameras started rolling.

he didn’t try to downplay, or dismiss  the claims about the boy.this  neighbor was convinced that the little boy wasn’t the devil.

he was just a broken child who made terrible decisions, this man had also experienced  aversion of nate that his  neighbors hadn’t got the chance to see.

he wanthed the government and the prosecutors to go easy on the young boy why? because nathaniel abraham was an 11 year old boy charged with the murder of….

an 18 year old  named ronnie green because , in the most controversial turn of events

the state of michigan was willing and ready to try him as an adult due to severity of his crime

and if they found him guilty ,if the prosecutors were able to get what they wanted

little nate would spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime he committed when he was just  11.

some of you  would say murder is murder regardless of age ,that’s waht makes the intricacies of this story all the more interesting 

let me set the record straight before we dive into this case  the true victim in this story 

was 18 year old  ronnie greene

Nate was a preteen who killed a teenager and now he had to face the consequences

so what went wrong?

we have to trace the thread back to the very to the very beginning .

Pontiac, michigan ; 1986

months  after he was born his  father left and never returnedthis sudden change  resulted in incredible hardship in the family

because nate wasn’t the only child, there were 6 of them, his mother gloria was forced to take up two jobs  to keep their family a float

she had two work  day and night ,so she was never   around and nate’s  formative years were spent under the care of his older siblings.

Gloria was caught between a rock and a hard place  between spending time raising her children or workingh ard to ensure they didn’t  starve to death

it’s no easy dilemma,however this whole situation turned out to be the perfect storm for something  dark within nate

with no one to keep him in check – nate became  delinquent 

from the moment he could walk  he began to exhibit extremely antisocial behavior.

many kids show these traits when they were young , parents corrected and rooted out , but  no one was  arount  to  do that for nate.so it grew into something so ugly , by the time  was 9 he had become a mischievous child with  the rap sheet of a series middle-aged criminal 

from the age of 9 till he was 11, nate had 22 police encounters  some  for arson, a couple of others for assault and several for braking and entering

out of those 22  at least five involved the use of a weapon ,one involved a 14 year old he beat with a steel pipe and the last involved an adult  a buss driver

at some point he became such a problem in the neighborhood that the prosecutors would later reveal in court that a  neighbor moved out of the block because of him,that same neighbor would also say quite prophetically 

someday nate will kill somebody “

now , you are probably wondering where nate’s mother did during this period, at  some point she began to feel helpless when almost every day there was someone  knocking their door reporting nate’s lates  crime .

 

one  major reason why she felt helpless was because she  had actually gone to the police for help ,she wanted  them to intervene with her son’s situation

but they referred her to the juvenile court and when she got there they sent her back to te police telling her that her word wasn’t enough.

no one was prepared to help, nobody was ready  to intervene

now , remember when i said nate was born into a perfect storm , there was one  more piece left for the chaotic future he was now destined  to  have.

 the 1980s was a very interesting decade in  american history

ronald regan became president ,CNN becam a thing,there were those interesting-looking macintosh computersand then  there was violence

widespread violence in major cities like new york and chicago however ,the most troubling part of the  80’s was the spike in the level of violent crimes committed by juveniles

between 1980 and 1994,  the number of juvenile homicide offenders doubled and according to FBI  clearance statistics

from that time frame the juvenile responsibility  for all homicides in the country grew from 5% to 10 % the quick  answer to why this  was happening was the crack epidemic of the mid 1980s

in the inner cities  it had become a  plague and it wasn’t long before drugs got paired  with guns and juveniles.

the progression from drug trade to gun wiolence isn’t suprising ,in fact  many would agree it is natural and expected.

but  how did kids get into the mix?

well , drug traffickers at the  time found that children and teenagers made excellent recruits-better than adults,children worked as low-level sellers carries, and lookouts while working for less, taking greater risks and escaping detention

because at the time, no one would have guessed that an  11 year old standing on a street corner was a drug  deealer.

and even when these kids got  caught their age imlied innocence and it meant they escaped  punishment.from the drug dealer’s perspective, these juveniles were beyond perfect 

so ,it wasn”t long before these same juveniles came in contact with guns and began using them for  their own protection, even if they didn’t need to

they aspired to use them,because guns had also become  a status  symbol for the drug -dealing lifestyle that these kids now wanted to be a part of

and that’s why just a decade  earlier in 1976  records showed  that less than two thirds of juvenile homicide offenders useda gun andby 1994 82 % of juveniles used a gun in cases of  homicide

this was the background of nate’s childhood

and while  there is no record of drug dealing activity on his juvenile rescords it wouldn’t be wild to suggest that he found himself  in that crowd.

and that  it was that crowd that enabled his truancy, where else do you think he got the gun he used?

his mother didn’t own a gun.

now  as expected the government’s resopnse to this spike of  violence ,gun-fueled, juvenile delinquency was to turn to the law.

so,  as the 80s progressed, a growing number od states passed laws stipulating that kids under 17  could be tried as  adults for certain crimes

it wasa weird way to deal with the problem ,because they weren’t seeking direct solutions ,they were just  adding to the punishment

supporters of this law who happened to be  civilians  took to the streets waving banners and slogans that read

” adult crime, adult time!”

and  by 1992 more than 40 states had passed laws for trying children as adults  but no state’s  version of the juvenile justice law matched the severity of michigan’s

Michigan -the same state that nathaniel abraham was born in, raised in  and would commit his devastating crime in , set no limits on the age that a child could be tried as an adult

they called their law” get tough on fuvenile offenders”

in fact , when one of the state senators who  pusched for this law  was asked if a child as  young as 4 could be tried as an adult , his answer was  a resounding yes.

the stage was now set for nathaniel abraham’s  crime and 3 years after that law was passed m in 1997 when 11 year old nathaniel abraham  shot 18 year old  ronnie greene

he became the scapegoat of a law  that set the scene for the country’s most controversial juvenile murder trial to date.

on the 31 st of october ,1997 there was a commotion in  Lincoln middle school there were police officers inthe 6th grade and class and  they were reading the civil rights not to the class teacher ,but to 11 year  old  nathaniel abraham dressed up in a halloween costume

a day before 30th of october ,1997, an  18 year old boy named ronnie greene had passed away after fighting for his life  for  almost 24 hours 

he’d been shot in the head by a  single bullet from a 22 caliber rifle, as  investigators scrambled to find out who this killer was , they discoverd that the day before 11 year old nathaniel abraham  jad stolen  a 22  caliber riffle  and gone shooting  outside

 

he shot at a neighbor’s house first , narrowly missing the man who owned the house, moments later he stood in a cluster of trees about 200 feets  away from a convenience store took aim and fired a bullet

that would hit 18 year old  ronnie greene in the head  and kill him roughly  a day later

while nate  admitted that he was the one  who shot ronnie ,he denied targeting him  ,instead he claimed that he was only aiming for the light bulbs and threes

the shot that killed ronnie green was  by his own admission an  unfortunate error, the prosecutors weren’t  bying it .

despite the fact that he 11 year old boy had never  met ronnie green before the shooting they  were convinced that he deliberately set out to kill someone that day

if you ‘re wondering what fueled the prosecutor’s conviction well ,they had  eviedence that nate had spoken to his girlfriend saying that he was going to kill someone on the morning of ronnie green’s tragic  demise .and that after the shooting he had  had bragged  about the kill he made to his friends.

with the backing of michigan’s get tough on juvenile offenders law the prosecutors  received permission to try nate as an adult .

chargin him with first degree murder and several other felonies ,nate was arrested placed in handcuffs and he was sent to  Oakland  county  children’s village – juvenile detention center in michigan while he awaited trial .

the arrest was deeply controversial,controversial  enough to deeply divide the country along  several ethical lines,while there were many unwilling to contribute to the discussion there were many more who thought  that this was a fitting punishment for 11 year old nate.

there was an overwhelming majority escpecially in the black comunity  who were against the decision .

Amnesty International reverend al sharpton  and probably every major civil rights in the country protested against the whole affair.calling it a disgrace to the justice system that should protect children delinwuent or not

like i noted earlier they  where trying  to try him as an adult and if he was found  guilty  he would be sent to prison for the rest of his life

 

one laywer  wasoutraged enough by the case that he shose to take it on pro bono at no cost Nate’s family laywer  was named  jeffrey  fieger, he was a lawyer who up to thaat point had built  a reputation  for taking on most  cases that   lawyers wouldn’t take touch .

his most  infamous past clien at that time was a man named jack kavorkian ….

also known  as dr death

jack kevorkian was an actual  doctor with the rap sheet of a comic book willain on his rap sheet  the man  had advocated harvesting the organs from death-row inmates while he was a pathologist  hwe  experiemented with  transfusing blood from the recently deceased into live patients

he did a lot of bizzare unethickal things throughout his career as a doctor  but the most controversial one, the one that got Geoffrey fieger representing  him as his attorney in court involved  assisted suicide  in michigan.

kervokian’s story is worthy of its own video so i wont go dowwn that rabbit hole

just know that while nate’s situation was contrversial it was not  new to Geoffrey  fieger and immediately he took on nate’s case.he began  aseries of motions and appeals ,that delayed the trial for at least 2 more years,enough time  for him to prepare

29th of  October ,1999

the murder trial began , Nate’s first appearance in court looked like something from a really dark SNL sketch

he was dressed in oversized prsion guard ,  there  were cuffs on his wrists and chains on his feet when he was asked to raise his right hand  he raised his left.

halfway through the hearings  he would start sobbing and for most of the trial he looked lsot but  prosecutors  and  the politicians who supported this law where hellbent on seeing it through to the end.

“i’m  gonna  shoot somebody”

in the opening statement the prosecutor Lisa halushka dramatically  wrote down those words for the  jury to read 

she claime that this was the words 11 year old nate told to his girlfriend days before  the killing.

as  the trial progressed ,this prosecutor called witnesses who suppported the idea that nathaniel’s act was infact, a premediated  murder.

according to the witnesses he had stolen the rusty rifle he used ,then practiced target shooting at balloons and  the houses of his neighbors  before the fatal shooting of ronnie green

later,the prosecutor would also note that nate had told the police contraditcting  storiesabout the shooting ,which according to her

was proof that he knew what he had done and that it was wrong.

when it was  Geoffery fieger’s turn, he argued that the shooting was an unfortunate accident,he didn’t  dispute the fact that nathaniel fired the gun,but he insisted that the boy was not trying to hit anyone

fieger brought an expert marksman to stand as a  witness who testified that it would have been almost impossible  to deliberately hit a small target from more than 200 feet which was  the approximate distance nate was from the victim.

and it was even more unlikely because the rifle he  used was old   and battered.

later  fieger called on child  psychologists to describe  nathaniel’s mental health state,according to these experts, nate had an IQ of 70  and that  at the time of the murder his thought  process were like  those of a 6 year old

fieger tried to prove that  nathaniel lacked impulse control and the mental capacity to form the intent to kill.

however the prosecution brought their own psychologist to the stand as a witness and he  rebutted the claim that nate couldn’t form an intent to kill

nate’s case was a delicate one.

if you were i nfront of the family of the deceased how could you say

” you’r son’s killer was just a child”

in a way ,there was something odd about the entire premise of the case because if nate was a 30 year old man who was examined by a court psychologist and  determined to have the mentality of a 6 year old would  a 30 year old nate  still be tried .

 

but wait  a minute ,the  plot thickens because the constitution also stipulates that nate be tried by a jury of his peers

and we both  know that  there’s no way the court was  going to do a pree -teen jury selection in an elementery school .so the  jury that was hearing nate’s case were all adults

there were constitutional gaps  that this murder trial allowed,when a journalist confronted the prosecution about it, they argued that the adult nature of nate’s crime and the severity of the consequences ofhis crime on the victim’s family was what justified the jury of adults

at the  end of the day  ,the truth was ,even though 2 years had passed since he  committed the crime and nathaniel abraham was now 13, he was still too young to drive a car, to young to drink,and too youn to wote.

and as a direct c onsequence of this ,people still argue that he should have been too young to be tried as an adult.

in the final days of the trial the prosecutors began seeking for a compromise

no more the 1st degree murder chargeres.now they were asking the presiding judge,on nate’s behalf, to allow the jury  to consider a lesser offfence wheter this was out of good will or because there was no victory  in sending an 11 year old  to life behind bars.

but no one knows,what we do know is that it worked 

and on the 16th of november 1999 nate ws found guilty  of second-degree murder ,which still made him the youngest american to be ever convicted of murder as an adult.

and there were three options  on the table for the judge

the first was  the harshest, a prison term of 8 to 25 years.

the 2nd option was a more moderate ,blended sentence and it would see nate go to a juvenile detention center

by the time he turned 18, if he was properly rehabilitated he would be released ,if not ,he would be transferred to an adult prison ,after turning 21 to serve the test of his 25 year senctence

this  was what  the prosecutors wanted, this is what they pushed for 

but  it wasn’t what  the judge eventually  chose, to their  suprise,the judge went for the 3rd option,which was most lenient- nate would be sent to a juvenile detention center and he would stay there till he  was 21.

after which he would become a free man and  the age of  13 nathaniel  abraham began what was supposedly a long road  of rehabilitation.

the state had  less than 8 years  to rehabilitate nate would they succeed?

on the 13th of january , 2000 nate was placed  in the care of the michigan department of human services for treatment and rehabilitation

then he was moved to  maxey boys training school,and to everyone’s surprise by august of that very year ,he began to show signs of responsibility

throughout 2001,he passed all of his classes  and he was praised for his academic perfomace in math , reading , and note keeping.

by 2003 , nate was described as a leader within his group, he displayed a positive attitude, took  on additional work and followed directions.

at this point,  his supervisors decided it was time to get him work in the real world ,so at the age of 17 nate began woriking in a goodwill store

and before long, his employers at the store indicated that he displayed a good  communiction skills and that he was courteous with the customers

eventually on 18th of december  and at the age of 18 Nathaniel  earned his GED,the following year, he would earn his high school diploma  and eventually  he was just one year away  from his release

so , was nate rehabilitated ?

had the juvenile system succeded in transforming  the 11 year old  killer into a functioning member of society?

he had shown consistent progress through the years and the world was about to find out if they had succeeded.

if you noticed , the reprots i relayed to you  felt  a little bit too clean, to sugary…

something was off, well  you can blame me for that i deliberately omitted some details

Nate had an anger issue , to be quite frank, he had a lot of issues enough of them to require several  disciplinary actionsn taken against him

nate had an affinity for getting into fights,even though he never really started them, he had a pattern of yelling at  prsion staff during  baseketballs games or any competitive sport nate had the tendencey to get heated .

he also had sticky fingers, and had been caught more than once stealing cleanings supplies to give to his girlfriend.

again , most of these missteps were seen as just that-missteps.

normal for any youth,what mattered he no longer participated in the crimes he had  committed  when he was 9

remember …

larceny?malicious destruction of property?, assault and illegal entry?murder?

Nathaniel abraham hadn’t killed anyone,in the 8 years since the trial

so,on the 18th of january,2007  after spending nearly a decade in juvenile detention, nate  was free…released into society 

he was a free man

i wish this was the end of the story and i wish i could vrap it up here with some disney- esque happily  -ever -after.

 but  unfortunately , there were more issues ahead for nate

for the first 18 months of  his new – found freedom, nothing remotely criminal or remarkable happened to nate 

unfortunately in may of 2008

nate was arrested again in pontiac with 254 ecstasy pills in a liquor bottle.

he was sentenced to four to 20 years in prison ,but eventaully got paroled in june 2017

did the rehabilitation fail

or was this just another misstep that nate would learn from?

well , consider this….after he was discharged from parole in july of 2o18 on the 6th of august of that same year ,nate got into  more trouble with the  police, after he  exposed himself infront of a 46 -year old  neighbor,who had declined his offer to cut her lawn.

two days after that incident he struck deputies who tried to take him into custody for skipping a court  appeance,he was  charged  wuth resisting  and obstructing  police 

a felony punishable  by ut to four years in prison

had the system faled nate or was  this his own  doing?

or better still … undoing ?

in 2019, nate,who was now 33 was handed a 6 to 40 years prison sentence for selling drugs to an undercover police officer in farmington hills.

before the sentece , he pleaded guilty  and shown remorse for his actions, this was probably  the  reason  why the judge had been extremely lenient when sentencing him.

because  under normal circumstances he would have had to face another life sentence ,because of his frequent problems with the law

Nate wasn’t  alone in court on the day of his sentencing,  his mother  , siblings and every relative  that had been  by his side since the start of his troubling journey   with the law almost 20 years  before ,was present 

and when the cameras  turned to his mother …when the questions about the support she had forher son came up … 

Gloria  abraham  was unwavering , nothing  had changed on her end

” i believe  in my son ” she said ” and of course,society doesn’t know his life he will do ok, he’ a strong young man”

Nate remains in prison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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