Hung Jury Trial

I think that roger is guilty of aggravated manslaughter. Sam Smit said that when Roger threw the boulder at Melvin (Piggy) no signal was given from the alleged tribe leader Jack. This murder was also a very brutal one, launching a boulder at the body of Melvin throwing him off to a 40 feet free fall which resulted in a crack skull and ultimately death.
You might think that since Roger is a 12 year old he couldn’t be capable of killing a human being, but we can tell this kid isn’t a saint. Henry Rogers admitted to being thrown rocks at by Roger, which shows that darkness dwells within him. He is a bully, and is capable of killing. In the time of the murder, Piggy was said to be without glasses thus making him temporarily blind. Roger preys on the weak.
Melvin only went up to the other kid’s fort to make his point and try to get his glasses which were stolen before hand. He never threatened them. They did bring spears though, in self defense, in case they got attacked, which they did. So Roger did not kill in self defense, rendering that excuse useless.
Roger has no disease preventing him from differentiating what’s right from wrong as shown in his medical report. So when he threw the boulder he was fully aware of the consequences that would be brought after the killing. Maurice said that Jack had been acting perfectly normal before he went to kill Piggy, so insanity is also not something which can excerpt him from his sentence.
One of the kids in the island admitted to being tortured by Jack, so it shows that these kids are capable of anything, even to lowering themselves to torture.
Maurice claims that before Melvin, Ralph, Sam, and Eric came to Jack’s tribe no order was given beforehand to kill Piggy. Only to kill an alleged beast, and Melvin seems as far away from a beast as possible, an overweight kid with asthma who can’t see.
The rock which was thrown at Melvin wasn’t thrown with an intent of breaking a few bones or injuring him, it was thrown with the full intent to kill. Roger saw that Melvin was standing at the edge of a cliff, and knew that if he threw that rock he would fall to his death.
Roger seems to have killed Melvin for bloodlust. There seems to be no good reason to explain the killing of Melvin. He was a vulnerable target that could not see and had asthma, so Roger was just preying on the weak for his bloodlust.
I think that Roger is guilty of aggravated manslaughter for killing Melvin recklessly by his own will while being concious of the consequences that followed his actions. He was completely sane while he was killing melvin, he didn’t intend to break bones but to kill, and Roger didn’t do it in self defense.

Tanka

A perfect island

for survival and rescue

a conch for meetings,

food at reach and fire at will

all to waste by a tyrant