Joshua Earl Patrick Phillips was only 14 when he was
responsible for the death of his 8 year old neighbor, Maddie Clifton, on
November 3rd, 1998.
Josh was charged as an adult with first degree murder and
convicted. He was sentenced to LIFE in prison with no possibility of parole.
Josh was a CHILD at the time of the felony. Unfortunately, at his
trial he was badly represented and NO witnesses were called in the defense.
Medical evidence of a mental disorder was never shared with the jury.
As supporters of Josh, we ask that you find compassion in your heart and sign
the petition at
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freejosh. What Josh did was heinous,
yet even now, Josh hasn't a clue what happened that day. He deeply regrets these
events and is so terribly remorseful. How would you feel if your
child/grandchild/friend/niece/nephew/cousin etc of just 14 years of age was
taken away from you to be given a life in prison sentence when he/she wasn't
mature enough to vote, drink alcohol or buy cigarettes?
The major question arises: 'If an 8 year old murdered another
human being, would it be right to send him/her to prison for the rest of their
lives?'.
The fact that they were children at the time of these crimes,
according to Florida Law, means nothing!
Josh deserved to be tried in Juvenile Court. He
deserved to have a fair trial. He was never allowed these things. We want Josh
to receive a retrial and obtain a sentence appropriate to his age and the
medical evidence obtained, never before released in the public domain.
Please help Josh. He's a lovely young man that turned 25 on March 17th 2009. He
deserves fair treatment.
For those that are aware, Josh's case is very similar to the LIONEL TATE case.
The boy was RELEASED from prison in 2004 after 3 years in incarceration,
following the brutal murder of a 6 year old girl. Lionel was 12 at the time of
the killing. So where's the difference in these cases? Many people have
suffered, and still do. Josh was a child, just like Lionel. Where's the justice?
For those that don't know, Josh's trial made international headlines. It was one
of America's most high profile cases. When his retrial commences, so will the
media circus. We want Josh to receive the best representation possible and also
many active supporters for him.
God Bless You and in anticipation, we thank you SO much for
your kindness and compassion.
More News Coverage
Teenager Found Guilty of Murdering Child
It was 5:30 p.m., almost dinnertime that day in November 1998, but 8-year-old
Maddie Clifton wanted to go outside to play until it was time to eat. Her mom
kissed her goodbye as she ran out the door. That was the last time she saw her
daughter alive. A half hour later, when she called her to come in for dinner,
Maddie had disappeared.
For seven days, her anxious family, her Jacksonville, Florida neighbors, the
police, and many hundreds of volunteers tried to find her. The entire nation
became involved in the search. Thousands of flyers were passed out. Local
businesses joined together and offered a $100,000 reward for her return. But
there was no sign of the little girl.
A week to the day later, Maddie's decomposing body was found in a neighbor's
house. It had been stuffed and taped in the frame of a waterbed in the bedroom
of a 14-year-old boy. The body was found by the boy's mother who had noticed
both a fluid leaking from the bed and an odor (which she had earlier attributed
to an uncleaned bird cage in the boy's bedroom). Shocked at the horror of her
discovery, she was barely able to speak as she rushed out the door and ran up to
a police officer stationed in the neighborhood during the search. She urged him
to come to the house right away. She did not explain -- she couldn't. She was
too shaken to put the grisly truth into words. She led him to the scene.
Within an hour, the police picked up the boy at his school. He had slept in the
bed every night that week as usual; he had sat on it and played his guitar --
and he had gone to school daily, as though nothing had happened.
The little girl's body showed that she had been brutally beaten on the head with
a baseball bat and had been stabbed repeatedly. The boy confessed to the crime.
He was tried as an adult; and on July 8, 1999, a jury convicted the teenager,
Joshua Earl Phillips, of first degree murder. On August 20, 1999, he was
sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. Under Florida law, because
he was under 16, he could not have been executed for his crime (the death
penalty being the other sentence imposed in first degree murder cases). If he
had been tried as a juvenile, the longest sentence he could have received would
have ended when he reached 19 years of age.
