The family of the 9-year-old boy charged with murder in connection to a mobile-home fire in central Illinois earlier this year revealed his identity on national television Thursday morning.

Katrina "Katie" Alwood told CBS News her son Kyle Alwood deserves a second chance.

"Everyone is looking at him like he's some kind of monster, but that's not who he is," Alwood said during a segment aired on "CBS This Morning."

"People make mistakes, and that's what this is," she said. "Yes, it was a horrible tragedy, but it's still not something to throw his life away over."

On Tuesday, Woodford County State's Attorney Greg Minger filed arson and first-degree murder charges against Kyle Alwood, who with his mother escaped the blaze April 6 near Goodfield, about 140 miles south of Rockford.

Minger did not identify the suspect, other than by age.

The fire killed five people. Kathryn Murray, 69, Jason Wall, 34, Rose Alwood, 2, Daemeon Wall, 2, and Ariel Wall, 1, died of smoke inhalation, autopsies revealed.

Ariel Wall and Daemeon Wall were other children of Katie Alwood. Jason Wall was their father. Rose Alwood was a niece. Murray was Alwood's grandmother.

On the CBS program, Alwood said her elder son has been diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia and with attention-deficit and bipolar disorders.

Therapy and counseling are among what probably will be prescribed for Kyle Alwood. Incarceration will not be an option if he is found guilty, according to Minger.

But Katie Alwood's sister Samantha Alwood told CBS she believes Kyle Alwood should face stricter punishment.

"I think he should go somewhere until he's legal age to go to juvie," said Samantha Alwood, who was Rose Alwood's mother. "Then I think he should go to juvie. And then from juvie to prison.

"Because at the end of the day, whether he meant to or not, he knew what fire did."

CBS also interviewed a New York constitutional-law professor who accused Minger of abusing his power by prosecuting the child.

"It's difficult to understand how a 9-year-old would have the state of mind to know that their action would result in a death," Gloria Browne-Marshall of John Jay College said.