PRO WRESTLING IS BOY'S MURDER DEFENSE

Pro wrestling -- the kind seen on television and in large-capacity arenas all over the country -- has its true-blue followers. There's no question about that. Why else would the TV and Show Me Center versions of adults pretending to beat the tar out of each other attract such huge audiences?

Of course, if you tell a pro wrestler that it's all fake, be prepared for some real pain. There's nothing pro wrestlers like to do more than pretend it makes them really mad if you say what they're doing is just play-acting.

But when a lawyer in Florida uses pro wresting as a defense for a 13-year-old boy who was only 12 when he smashed a 6-year-old's skull, the World Wresting Federation responds by filing a libel lawsuit.

These are among the bizarre circumstances of a murder trial currently under way in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Lionel Tate is one of the youngest defendants to ever face adult murder charges in the Sunshine State. His defense attorney claims Lionel accidentally killed his young friend by imitating the pro wrestlers he had watched on TV. The lawyer says young Lionel didn't understand that it was all fake and assumed, based on what he saw, that anyone pounded by a pro wrestler would eventually get up and walk away unhurt.

But the WWF says the wrestling defense isn't just libelous. Its attorney claims it's also a fabrication. Indeed, prosecutors played a videotape for jurors made shortly after Tiffany Eunick's death showing Lionel saying she was hurt when they were playing tag and watching cartoons when he picked her up and accidentally hit her head on a coffee table. It wasn't until a month after the tragedy that pro wrestling came up.

In any event, it's difficult to understand why this case is being tried in adult court rather than being handled by juvenile authorities. The prosecutor says he offered a deal that would have done just that, but the plea bargain was rejected because the boy's lawyer insists he hasn't done anything wrong and shouldn't be punished.

The prosecution presented its evidence last week, and the defense was making its case this week. It will be interesting to see how the jury decides. There are instances when children kill each other and tough prosecution is warranted. But unless jurors hear something more convincing than what the news media have reported, they will have to wonder why this young boy's fate is now in their hands.