Two young Chicago boys accused of killing and sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl should be allowed to return home pending trial, psychologists have said.
The two boys, aged seven and eight, were back in court before judge Gerald Winiecki after undergoing a number of psychiatric tests over the past two days.
Police said the boys had confessed to murdering 11-year-old Ryan Harris late last month. The girl was struck with a rock, suffocated with pieces of her own clothing, leaves and branches, dragged to a vacant lot and sexually assaulted with a foreign object.
The experts told the court that their tests determined the two boys were not psychologically disturbed and did not appear to be a threat to themselves or others.
They therefore recommended that the boys, believed to be the youngest ever charged with murder in the United States, be returned to their parents at home where they could continue to receive psychological supervision. But the state's attorney called for a longer psychiatric evaluation and a second opinion. Under Illinois law, children under 10 cannot be held in a locked detention centre.
Meanwhile in the predominantly black Englewood neighbourhood where the murder took place, 50 residents yesterday met to criticise the police investigation and protest the innocence of the boys, who are also black.
They said the boys could not possibly have committed the crime in view of their age. They also questioned the way the confessions were extracted from the boys.