On a hot July night in 1995, Janet Downing was stabbed 98 times inside her Somerville, Massachusetts, home. Within hours, police identified 15-year-old Eddie O'Brien, the best friend of one of her sons, as the suspect. Eddie had no criminal history, no clear motive, and no apparent opportunity. Yet his case emerged during a national panic over juvenile "superpredators," when Massachusetts officials were pushing to prosecute more children as … [Read more...]