“On the night of April 19, police say Tremble pedaled his bicycle about two miles to the home of Pete and Ruth Stanley, armed with a .22-caliber rifle. Investigators said evidence showed Tremble broke into the home and fatally shot the Stanleys as they slept in bed.”
“Dennis Stanley vividly recalls the telephone call from police telling him to come to his parents’ home. ‘I got called at 2:20 a.m. You would not believe how much I still wake up in the middle of the night and the clock is within a few minutes of 2:20 a.m.,’ he said.”
“Tremble was arrested the same night after police, responding to a car in a ditch, found him at the wheel of Peter Stanley’s car.”
“Shortly after his arrest, Tremble confessed to police to shooting the Stanleys, saying he didn’t know why he did it. He said he wanted a car to drive to visit a friend….”
“[While in prison] Tremble has been in trouble for gambling, fighting and ‘dangerous contraband’ related to his getting homemade tattoos from other inmates.”
Eric English, Life, Reconsidered, Bay City Times (Michigan), December 4, 2005, at A1.
Anti-JLWOP Activist’s Version
“T.J. Tremble was arrested just four months after Michigan enacted harsh new laws permitting 14-year-old children to be tried as adults. As police held and interrogated him overnight, they
refused to permit his worried parents to see him and denied requests for an attorney. T.J. was convicted of first-degree murder and automatically sentenced to death in prison with no consideration of his age or background.”
Equal Justice Initiative, Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in
Prison 29 (2007).
Research from the Heritage Foundation’s Adult Time For Adult Crime.
