Michael Hernandez

Suspect's parents struggle with disbelief
Fred Grimm, Miami Herald, February 29, 2004

Perhaps Michael, the prepuberty adult, should declare to the presiding judge that he will act as his own lawyer. The move would create a fine conundrum for a legal procedure built around the fiction that a 14-year-old has the judgment, maturity and savvy to contribute to his own defense.

But that would require guile beyond Manny and Kathy. The sweet-natured parents seem to cling to some hope that, even in an election year, the criminal justice system will find some alternative to a lifetime in prison for their child.

The bureaucracy of the detention facilities where Michael has been incarcerated since Feb. 3 has eaten away at that hope. Their efforts to get Michael clothes, books, a Bible, could have been charted by Kafka. They're negotiating a security system set up to handle hardened adult criminals, not a 14-year-old with doting parents.

Those jail visits crush the parents. Michael remains confined on the other side of thick glass. They talk through small holes in the glass. They can't touch Michael. It's this aspect of their ordeal that has engulfed Kathy.

She keeps repeating, in tears, ``I can't touch my boy. He's only 14. He needs a hug. How can a little boy not need a hug?''

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