The Stabbing of Payton Leutner

On May 31, 2014, Anissa Weier, Morgan Geyser, both twelve year olds, lured their best friend Payton Leutner into the woods and attacked and stabbed her 19 times. The reason they did this was because Morgan and Anissa wanted to appease a fictional character named Slender Man. The character became popular on a website called Creepypasta, which attracted many young children Anissa and Morgan's age. One of the many twisted things about this crime was that both girls actually believed that Slender Man was real, which suggests possible mental illness. They wanted to kill Payton to prove that Slender Man was real, and because that was apparently the only way to become his followers. The three girls were at Morgan's house for a sleepover, and at one point, they asked her mother if they could go to the park. Thinking nothing of it, her mother said yes, and that was when the whole plan was set in motion. Apparently, both Morgan and Anissa had been planning the attack on their best friend for quite some time; researching how to become Slender Man's proxies, or servants. Once they got to the park, the whole plan began to unfold. The plan had been to lure Payton into the bathroom and stab her there. The girls had researched and found that if a person is unconscious or asleep, the killing wouldn't be as painful. Knowing this, Morgan and Anissa told Payton to close her eyes. When she refused, they used their fists to bang her forehead back against the cement wall of the bathroom stall. Now that she was knocked out, Morgan began to stab her. Anissa cheered her on by saying, "go ballistic, go crazy!" When the damage was done, they left her in the woods to die. However, as it turned out, Payton had survived the attack. When she regained consciousness, she was able to crawl out of the woods, and ask for help from an oncoming bicyclist. The bicyclist saw stab wounds in her arms, abdomen, and chest. Anissa and Morgan were caught walking through the woods to find Slender Man's mansion. After seven months of being held in jail, the judge ruled that Anissa would be sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital, while Morgan was sentenced to 40 years. What are your views on this case? Do you think the girls got the sentences they deserved?