The Georgia case against Colin Gray treats an inattentive parent as a murderer

Colin Gray, whose 14-year-old son is accused of killing two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school last month, is himself facing 29 criminal charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. The case is part of a disturbing trend in which prosecutors are trying to spread blame for school shootings by criminalizing parental failure.

Judging by the accusations against him, Gray is no one’s idea of ​​a model parent. Prosecutors say he failed to safely store the rifle used in the Sept. 4 attack on Apalachee High School in Winder, a gun he bought his son Colt as a Christmas present.

Gray reportedly knew Colt was in deep trouble, but failed to get him the help he needed. He reportedly ignored signs that Colt was prone to violence, including a photo of a school shooter that the teen had on his bedroom wall.

If the Apalachee High School shooting had involved a gun, these allegations could support a misdemeanor charge under a Georgia statute that applies to a parent “providing a pistol or revolver to a minor.” while “aware of a significant risk” that the minor “will use a pistol or revolver to commit a crime.” But because that law doesn’t cover guns, prosecutors are relying on other laws that are less clearly applicable.

An indictment unsealed last week charges Gray with two counts of second-degree murder, each punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison. That is the most serious charge ever brought against the parents of a school shooter.

The murder charge is based on a statute that applies to someone who “causes the death of another human being without regard to malice” while “committing cruelty to children in the second degree.” The latter offense 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 omission to act manifesting an intentional, willful or reckless disregard for the safety of others who might reasonably be expected to be injured as a result.”

Gray also faces 20 counts of cruelty to children, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and five counts of reckless endangerment. All allegations are based directly or indirectly on standards that require more than just proof of inattention or carelessness.

To convict Gray, prosecutors will have to convince a jury that he should have known his son was inclined to commit mass murder and deliberately, recklessly or knowingly ignored that danger. While that previously seemed like a tall order, it seems less questionable in light of the two verdicts obtained by Michigan prosecutors 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 those against Gray: that the couple ignored warning signs and allowed their son unsupervised access to the gun he used in the attack. The legal standard was also similar: Prosecutors had to prove that the defendants “intentionally disregarded (disregarded) the results to others that might result from an act or omission to act.”

It is plausible to argue that in these cases the parents share moral responsibility for their children’s crimes and should be held civilly liable. It is much more complicated to argue that their failures amounted to criminal negligence, let alone murder.

Warning signs are always obvious in retrospect, and people want to believe that teenagers bent on mass murder can be thwarted if only adults pay enough attention, take the “red flags” seriously, and intervene before it’s too late. As comforting as that belief may be, it does not justify sending a father to prison for life because he never imagined his son would be capable of such a heinous crime.

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