Attorneys for Christopher Pittman filed a Petititon for Cert with the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday. Pittman was 12 years old when he shot his grandparents at their South Carolina home. Pittman's attorneys claimed the killing was induced by Zoloft, which had been prescribed to the preteen after a diagnosis of childhood depression. Pittman was wrongly tried as an adult, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Twenty five states set the minimum age at which a child can be tried as an adult at higher than 12. His attorneys are arguing that such a sentence is cruel and unusual.
Zoloft is the most widely prescribed antidepressant in the United States, with 32.7 million prescriptions written in 2003. Though the drug was never approved for children nor ever shown to be effective for childhood depression, as much as 10% of the sales of the drug are for adolescents. In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Zoloft and other antidepressants to carry “black box” warnings — the government’s strongest warning short of a ban — about an increased risk of suicidal and violent behavior in children.
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