WEST PALM BEACH (Court TV) —Amid the hordes of people descending on downtown West Palm Beach this weekend to attend Sunfest, the city's annual music festival, a smaller group gathered for a far more somber affair.

About 100 people met to hold a prayer vigil and demonstration in support of Nathaniel Brazill, the teenager on trial here for killing his teacher.

The demonstrators, decked in dark suits and white lace church dresses, came to protest a system that is prosecuting Brazill, 14, as an adult.

"We may not know what justice may be, but we know what justice is not. Justice is not taking any child, putting him in an adult prison and saying you are now an adult," boomed the Reverend Thomas Masters, chairman of Coalition for Justice, an umbrella organization of area churches and community groups.

"If the juvenile justice system is broken, then it needs to be corrected," he continued, in what at times resembled a church service more than a rally. "You don't fix it by taking a 14-year-old and throwing him in adult prison."

Brazill shot Grunow outside his classroom on May 26, 2000, the last day before summer vacation for Lake Worth Community Middle School. Charged with first-degree murder, he faces life in prison without parole. While the prosecution claims that the shooting was premeditated, the defense maintains that it was an accident.

One after another, speakers took to a makeshift stage to denounce Brazill's trial as an adult for killing his seventh-grade English teacher.

Many of the speakers made sure to stress that, in praying and rallying for Brazill, the crowd should not forget that the tragedy ripped two families apart.

"What about the Grunow family?" a speaker from the Nation of Islam shouted to a chorus of amens and shouts of approval. "These are people that have been hurt."

But Masters speculated that Grunow himself may not have supported trying Brazill as an adult.

"From what I've heard about Mr. Grunow, that he was a man of compassion, that he was a great teacher, that he loved children, and that children loved him, I'm not sure that he would say that we should burn this child," the reverend said.

The crowd was most animated when led in song by a gospel group from Jay's Ministry, an area drug counseling and treatment program. The singers were all former patients.

"Someday/ my way seems dark as night/ Lord, I'm gonna wait/ because my rainy day/ will soon be over," the boisterous crowd sang.

"Justice without mercy is an empty promise that will not be accepted in our community any longer," said one activist, Joe Morgan.

State Attorney Barry Krischer, who made the decision to try Brazill as an adult, received especially withering criticism.

"Mr. Krischer can use the incident for all political purposes he desires," another speaker said. "He has to answer for that. What we want to do is treat Nate Brazill as a child."

But one man who happened by the rally said he felt it was okay to try teenagers like Brazill as adults.

"If juveniles knew they would be treated as adults, then perhaps the juveniles would have to act in a different way, shape and manner," Frank Ihlenfeld, a realtor from nearby Boynton Beach, said. "Society needs to be protected from these types of people."

But Ihlenfeld was in the minority on this Sunday afternoon. The large show of support gave heart to Polly Powell, Brazill's mother, in an otherwise trying time. With a large smile she said she would visit her son and tell him about the rally.

Asked what she would say, Powell shrugged and replied, "I'll figure the words out when I get there."

The trial is being aired live on Court TV.