Aaron Hart obsesses over blue Kool-Aid, WWF wrestling and puppies. He speaks in halting, incomprehensible stutters. And when his family says goodbye to him through a Plexiglas window at the Lamar County Jail, the 19-year-old with mental disabilities waves frantically and bleats, “Dad, why I gotta be in here, Dad?” It’s a question Aaron’s family — and Texas’ entire disability rights community — has been asking for two years, ever since Aaron was arrested in his northeast Texas hometown of Paris and sentenced to 100 years in prison for performing sexual acts on a 6-year-old neighbor. An appeals court overturned the conviction this spring, ruling that Aaron pleaded guilty only because an attorney told him he would be eligible for probation. (He wasn’t.) Now Aaron sits in jail facing the same charges a second time, and his family is praying for a different outcome. “This boy has never done anything bad in his entire life. They give a special kid like Aaron 100 years?” his 71-year-old father Robert Hart shouts, his entire body shaking. “I’ve been through a lot in my life, but never anything as hard as this.” Aaron was diagnosed with mental retardation as a child. With an IQ of 47, the mental capacity of a kindergartner and a severe speech impediment, he was placed in special education classes but never learned to read or write. After high school graduation, he rode his bike, played video games with neighborhood kids and did odd jobs to make money. He kept a string in his pocket as a pet. added by: toyotabedzrock
