I grew up with order to respect my elders, and I have all along. I spend significant amounts of time with both of my grandmothers, having lost not really known my grandfathers due to their early demises.

So now we have two murder cases in Oakland County, one a teenager accused of beating his father to death and another a grandmother shooting her grandson to death.

I don't know the facts of these cases, except what little has been released. (The Freep.com has done some good reporting on the earlier one, the Cipriano case.)

But here is where I stand early on: If your grandmother has to shoot you, you likely have it coming, short of some sort of mental illness.

And if you have to break into your folks home to steal for your drug habit, and someone dies, you deserve life without parole, no matter how young you are.

We'll see what the facts prove, but this is my early stance. If the grandmother is acquitted, though, the prosecutors who filed the charges should question how they do their jobs.