Prosecuting father of Georgia school shooting suspect is a legal stretch
Colin Gray, whose 14-year-old son is charged with murdering two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school last month, himself faces 29 criminal charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. The case is part of a troubling trend in which prosecutors seek to spread the blame for school shootings by criminalizing parental failures.
Judging from the allegations against him, Gray is no one's idea of a model parent. Prosecutors say he failed to securely store the rifle used in the Sept. 4 attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, a weapon he bought his son, Colt, as a Christmas present.
Gray allegedly knew Colt was deeply troubled but failed to get him the help he needed. He allegedly disregarded signs that Colt was prone to violence, including a photograph of a school shooter the teenager had on his bedroom wall.
If the Apalachee High School shooting had involved a handgun, these claims might have supported a felony charge under a Georgia statute that applies to a parent who "furnish(es) a pistol or revolver to a minor" when he "is aware of a substantial risk" that the minor "will use a pistol or revolver to commit a felony offense." But because that law does not cover rifles, prosecutors are relying on other statutes that are less obviously applicable.
An indictment unveiled last week charges Gray with two counts of second-degree murder, each of which is punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison. That is the most serious charge ever brought against a school shooter's parent.
The murder charges are based on a statute that applies to someone who "causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice" while committing "cruelty to children in the second degree." The latter crime is defined as causing a minor to suffer "cruel or excessive physical or mental pain" with "criminal negligence," which in turn is defined as "an act or failure to act which demonstrates a willful, wanton, or reckless disregard for the safety of others who might reasonably be expected to be injured thereby."
Gray also faces 20 counts of cruelty to children, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and five counts of reckless conduct. All the charges directly or indirectly rely on standards that require more than proof of inattentiveness or carelessness.
To convict Gray, prosecutors will have to persuade a jury that he should have known his son was inclined to commit mass murder and willfully, recklessly or consciously disregarded that danger. Although that previously would have seemed like a daunting challenge, it looks less iffy in light of two verdicts that Michigan prosecutors obtained earlier this year.
In separate trials, juries convicted Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of a teenager who killed four students at Oxford High School in 2021, of involuntary manslaughter. They received prison sentences of 10 to 15 years.
The allegations in that case were similar to the allegations against Gray: The couple ignored warning signs and allowed their son unsupervised access to the gun he used in the attack. The legal standard also was similar: Prosecutors had to prove the defendants "willfully disregard(ed) the results to others that might follow from an act or failure to act."
It is plausible to argue the parents in these cases share moral responsibility for their children's crimes and should be held civilly liable. It is much more of a stretch to argue their failures amounted to criminal negligence, let alone murder.
Warning signs are always clear in retrospect, and people want to believe that teenagers bent on mass murder can be thwarted if only adults pay enough attention, take "red flags" seriously and intervene before it is too late. However reassuring that belief may be, it does not justify sending a father to prison for life because he never imagined his son was capable of such a horrifying crime.
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine.
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