Should teenage murderers be tried as adults?
The application of our “Juvenile tried as an adult” laws, at least in my jurisdiction, is extremely balanced. The vast majority we have tried as adults have not been schoolyard children most parents would allow their own children to play with. They are those that are known by the criminal justice system, who have been on probation and failed to respond to probation efforts, and have refused to give up their gang- and drug-related behavior. They pose a very high level of risk to the community, and for the sake of community safety, they need to be removed from the community. Trying them as juvenile’s could definitely accomplish “containment” of that risk, but the Youth Authority can only keep them until they’re 25.
They are not adults, no matter how horrific the crime. Medical research has shown that young people’s brains do not mature until their early twenties. That said, murder is a crime that should not go unpunished. Prison time is certainly appropriate. An indeterminate sentence, combined with intensive psychiatric intervention, would be in order, the time served to be determined during incarceration. A competent psychiatric team is capable of judging how well intervention is succeeding – or not succeeding. A truly contrite convict who demonstrates convincingly he or she will not repeat and will instead re-enter society and become a productive, contributing member of that society might be released in six years, while one that proves resistant may spend twenty years or more in prison. And if the youngster never demonstrates that level of trustworthiness – well, then perhaps he or she should never get out. In no way is capital punishment EVER appropriate or proper!
