JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The teen convicted of killing Maddie Clifton is talking behind bars.
Police arrested Joshua Phillips as a 14 year old for beating and stabbing Maddie to death in 1998. He hid her body under his waterbed and slept there for a week before his mother discovered the body. The news devastated the community.
Phillips received life in prison with no chance of parole.
Now at the age of 24, Phillips is telling his story from the Hardee Correctional Institution in an exclusive interview to our news partner, the Florida Times-Union.
Phillips says he thinks about Maddie Clifton all the time but when it comes to a written apology, he just can't.
Phillips says Maddie's family deserves one in person so that they could see his sincerity.
He also wants a second chance, but knows he'll never get one as a free man.
He's also doing a lot of thinking about growing up and dying in prison.
Monday, November 3, 2008
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21 comments:
Hello Joshua, i sincerly feel you have done your punishment! and your punishment is having to live with maddys death till the day you die,(and thats one load to carry) you should be given a second chance!keeping you in jail is not going to bring maddy back, and if her parents could just see and understand that you are mentally being punished, should bring peace to them intime, i could see the sincere sadness for what you did and ill pray that you will be set free !i dont belive in locking childrend up and jail only makes people worse unless you play the police game of (im being good )as most do! to give the stupid police a feeling of they won lol things happen im sure some have no remorse but you do!!god bless you joshua,and i pray that in time maddys family will come to the same understanding and speak with you! i say FREE JOSHUA !!!
No way, a killer is a killer no matter what. You can excuse any act but never can forgive a killer, who forgive Hitler? These inoccent victims didn't deserved to die, i say pay and die in prision and ask for forgiveness from the above
I think the comparison with Hitler is a little farfetched to say the least. There's huge differences between a teen who kills a little girl and an adult that plans the extinction of a whole race and religion. This is a difficult case and there's a lot to say for both sides. Most important should be the opinion of the little girls parents. If they are at a point where they feel and can say they forgave this man, there's not much value left for the opinion of people like us who have nothing to do with the case what so ever. If people say that it's God that has to judge in the end that's fine with me. What I do ask from these people is not to judge others themselves. But for some reason that never seems to be case.
this case was ass like yyy tf would u put her under the bed i hope u stay in jail forever like thats crazy smh death sentence would be better for yo pussy ass.I think you are very insane for killing maddie, maddie was an innocent little girl and if it was an accident you shouldve went and told her parents . instead of murdering dummy u should DIEEEE.
Could you please tell me where this Florida Times-Union interview or any other documentaries on this case could be found?
You must be a troll.
Back in 2004 Maddie's mother stated she didn't believe any child deserves life without parole. She doesn't hate him, she hates what he did.
As far as Josh being freed, are you kidding me?
He strangled her, stabbed her, bludgeoned her, and slept with her dead body under his bed for SEVEN NIGHTS.
According to the Prosecutor, he was watching rape porn, bestiality, and S&M porn on his computer a half hour before killing her. This is not normal 14 year old behavior.
And to think, his father blamed Maddie, stating if she had learned to take "No" for an answer, or simply not gone over their house to play with Josh that day, she would still be alive and Josh wouldn't be in jail. (I understand Mr Phillips has since died in a car accident.)
A normal kid might fear his father (especially the behavior his father admitted to on tv interviews), but a sane kid doesn't bludgeon, choke, cut the throat three times, disrobe from waist down, and stuff another child's eight year old body into the undercarriage off his bed...and then volunteer to help said child's parents look for her!
Perhaps Josh Phillips deserves a parole hearing after 50 years served, but to free him would be an incredible miscarriage of justice.
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
This guy has SEVERE problems.
It's all on Google.
@Anonymous: Perhaps not. The 48 hours documentary and Josh's interview are nowhere to be found.
Is there any possible way we can access that interview?
I work in Mental Health, and I can tell you, violent sexual offenders with brain abnormalities such as this person has, do re-offend. They do not get better, and letting him out only exposes everyone he comes in contact with in jeopardy of harm. I will remind you, Maddie, who was only 8, was shoved under the mattress while she was still alive after 3 attacks, plus being stripped of half her clothing.
If you let this person out, someone else will be harmed. Can you live with that on your conscious? Keep him locked up, for the security of others.
This person has not exhibited appropriate remorse, insight or responsibility. He denies culpability, he is not sorry. He is only sorry he got in trouble for what he did. He blames others.
Do you people know the whole story? He didn't do this because he had a mental problem, he did what he did because he was petrified of his father and was afraid he would get his ass beaten because he did what his father told him not to. His mother was also afraid of his father, so that tells me his father was controlling and a bastard.
I agree with what you've said Donna Singh but I also believe that Josh's 'frontal lobe brain lesions' should be considered a major factor as to why his ability to discern between right and wrong was disabled. I've seen pictures of him kissing his dog and playing with his family's birds, but then reading this horrific story of how he murdered Maddie proves to me that there was a serious mental defect that caused him to have a mental break. I wish he would write the Clifton's a letter repenting for what he's done as I don't believe they will ever want to see him face-to-face and I don't blame them for that; sometimes writing out one's thoughts explains even more than a verbal discussion ever could.
I totally disagree with the anonymous 'mental health worker' above who says he'll re-offend, the psychiatric juggernaut doesn't believe forgiveness and repentance are a state of mind but rather are 'processes' that take a lifetime to achieve - which is a blatant lie. Every day we wake-up we either choose to forgive those who have harmed us or not to forgive, we choose to repent for what we've done or we don't; it's not something that takes years to do but rather is something that requires a conscious choice.
I don't believe a child who murders another child should be judged in the same manner as an adult murdering a child or another adult would for that matter. It's been proven time and time again that human brain development isn't cut and dry because the science of brain chemistry remains a mystery to humanity; we do know however, that before the age of 21 the brain is in fact still developing. How many times have we heard of someone who has committed a horrific crime say they just don't know what happened to them, they just lost touch with reality and their fractured mind snapped.
Absolute fear, extreme anxiety along with brain damage are all factors that can alter how a person acts or reacts to their reality and the mental health industry should take into account (especially when dealing with children who commit heinous crimes such as this) that Josh was diagnosed by a neurologist as having frontal lobe brain lesions which have been proven to be the part of the brain that affects judgment and personality. One must also take into account the fact that Josh had access to the violent pornographic websites that he visited prior to murdering Maddie and was deathly afraid of his father; anyone in their right mind could testify to the fact that the developing brain of a child who has a pre-existing brain defect watching such horrendous images and then thinking about what his father would do to him could have been what sent him over the edge.
In closing my sympathy goes out to both families and my heart breaks for Maddie’s but I do believe Josh deserves a second chance, nothing will ever bring Maddie back and Josh will have to live with that for the rest of his life, but in all the interviews I've seen of him he is repentant while wiping away tears. Serial killers show no remorse as their soul is already dead, this was not premeditated murder but was 2nd degree murder and Josh is now a man who knows what he did was wrong; he wants to make amends somehow and I believe he should be given the opportunity to do so because he could be successful with the proper rehabilitation program.
Well said!
Well said!
Yep. I agree, keep him in!
Love you Josh 😍 stay strong
Love you Josh 😍 stay strong
Hitler? There is no comparison with Joshua to Hitler.
Nothing, including him being 14 at the time or having feared his father's abuse, can absolve him of this absolutely horrific crime committed against such a young, innocent, beautiful child. The amount of suffering he inflicted on that girl is hard to try to comprehend. Imagine that after being hit in the eye with a baseball, you are bludgeoned over the head with a bat three times, stabbed multiple times, and shoved under a waterbed where you clutch a railing and slowly die. While he may not be 100% all monster, and may even have a sweet side, the percentage of monster in him to be able to do the things he did is too much to ever allow him to re-enter society. Why should he be given the benefit of the doubt at the expense of other potential victims?
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