After four days of deliberation, the jury found Nathaniel Abraham guilty of shooting Ronnie Greene, 18, with a .22-calibre rifle in the northern Detroit suburb of Pontiac.

However, jurors rejected a conviction on first-degree murder charges which could have meant life in prison without parole.

With the second-degree murder conviction, the boy faces a maximum of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

He sat expressionless before and after the verdict was read.

Judge to sentence

He was the first youth to be charged with first-degree murder and tried as an adult under a 1997 Michigan law that allows adult prosecutions of children of any age in certain serious cases.

While the boy was tried as an adult, his conviction on second-degree murder means the judge can now choose to sentence him as an adult or a juvenile.

If sentenced as a juvenile, he could be imprisoned until he reaches the age of 21 or the judge could choose to keep him in jail under 21 and then review the case.

Gloria Abraham (right), Nathaniel's mother, is comforted after the verdict

Oakland County prosecutors said evidence that the boy had boasted that he was going to shoot someone and had engaged in shooting practice showed that he had planned the killing with the premeditation needed for a first-degree murder conviction.

But his lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, insisted that he did not have the ability to form the criminal intent to commit murder.

The defence argued that Greene was hit accidentally while the boy was just shooting at trees.

"Would you want a group of 11-year-olds sitting on this jury? Deciding legal issues like intent?" Mr Fieger had asked jurors.

"It would be absurd."

Tough - or too harsh?

Nathaniel Abraham is one of four children of a single mother. Tests carried out in 1994 revealed that he was emotionally retarded.

Abraham was expelled from three schools in two years

Following his participation in fights and other behavioural problems, he was expelled from three schools in two years.

Some law enforcement officials are arguing that the case proves the need to get tough with kids who are a menace to society.

But Amnesty International chose the boy's frightened face to illustrate the cover of a 1998 report condemning the US justice system as being too harsh on juveniles.

"I can honestly say, he doesn't understand," Daniel Bagdade, one of his attorneys, said after visiting Abraham in jail following the verdict.