Justices ban life-without-parole sentences for young killers
The
Supreme Court Monday struck down mandatory sentences of life
imprisonment without parole for convicted murderers who were only 14
years old when they committed their crimes.
There are approximately 80 fourteen-year-olds nationwide who are serving such sentences.
The justices ruled that imposition of a life-without-parole sentence on a fourteen-year-old person convicted of homicide violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments.
There are approximately 80 fourteen-year-olds nationwide who are serving such sentences.
The justices ruled that imposition of a life-without-parole sentence on a fourteen-year-old person convicted of homicide violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments.
Discuss this post Interesting debate
What is your opinion?????
Is it cruel and unusual punishment for the person who is dead?
#2 - Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:20 AM EDT
Did
you ever do something you regretted as a child? I know it's a matter
of scale. I didn't say they shouldn't go to prison at all.
I don't think you take our children, damaged or not, and just throw away their lives without any hope.
It's like being Pro-Life and Pro-Death penalty at the same time.
I don't think you take our children, damaged or not, and just throw away their lives without any hope.
It's like being Pro-Life and Pro-Death penalty at the same time.
Skup, either you have no idea about brain development or you have no brain!
We are not China! If you want to ignore all knowledge of psychology, maybe you would like to move to a 3rd world country? Or is it "revenge" instead of justice?
We are not China! If you want to ignore all knowledge of psychology, maybe you would like to move to a 3rd world country? Or is it "revenge" instead of justice?
There's a reason we don't consider them adults until they're 18.
I just don't get it... What has age got to do with it? The victims will never get any older... Their dead!
This makes no sense whatsoever except that the NRA position is looking better every day. Welcome to the wild wild west everyone!
This freaking society has gone nuts!!!
On second thought, if one of the victims were one of my family members, I might just want the murderer back out on the street with me.
I understand with the F up our system has that one day some murderer is getting back on the street as a possibility. But also as a possibility are all the wrongly convicted killers getting more chance to be looked at. How many innocent, even ADULTS have been freed because of reviews lately? It isn't zero.
And it isn't one. Or two. Or three. And so on. It is a hell of a lot more than that.
Now, it is going to be up to proper enforcement and review. In other words, a parole board actually now has to do its job.
This Supreme Court (and this article) doesn't say sh!t.
I say this in all honesty as someone who's worked with teenagers who were victims of abuse and troubled teens.
http://teenagebrain.blogspot.com/
I'm not saying these children shouldn't be in jail and some of them should be in the psych ward for the rest of their lives. But, "MANDATORY" life without parole is not the best way to go. It takes out all considerations on the situation and circumstances.
My biggest problem is that now we are sending this big headline out to all these teen murderers that you can kill and get away with it because your too young to go to prison for it.......open the doors and get ready.....here they come to kill you. They all think they are playing a video game and think it's so much fun ti kill, just like in their games. And if I protect myself is that going to be wrong now too or will they say that I was doing cruel punishment in protecting my family and me.
"Rehablitation" is a sad joke. Keep these murderers in prison where they belong.
Cruel and unusual, my foot. What is cruel? It should be judged by the crime they committed. If they killed, execution (much less life in prison) is not cruel, it is appropriate justice. What is unusual? Anything that is not usual. Make execution the usual punishment. Then by definition it will neither be cruel nor unusual.
Judicial activism strikes again.
My own feeling is that almost all severely-abused kids who finally can't take any more abuse, and end-up killing their abuser in order to protect themselves from having to suffer any more abuse, deserve another chance at an adult life after several years of therapy, which has to include supportive surroundings that help them to build-up their often destroyed self-esteem.
There is no good reason at all for a severely-abused kid who defends themselves by killing their attacker to be locked-up in an adult prison for any amount of time, where they will subjected to a 500% greater chance of being raped than in a juvenile facility, a 300% greater chance of being beaten or abused by staff than in a juvenile facility, a several hundred percent greater chance of being forced into solitary confinement than in a juvenile facility, and more than a 500% greater chance of committing suicide than in a juvenile facility as well.
I would far rather that we design and operate an intermediate judicial division for serious older teen offenders where rehabilitation, therapy, and release back to society would be to focus of the program, where such younger violators could be incarcerated for periods of time longer than is currently available under our juvenile justice system, or just allow for lengthier incarceration terms for serious juvenile offenders in entirely separate juvenile facilities, where such young people could continue juvenile therapy through their late teens and 20s if necessary to satisfy the need for revenge that some of us so seem to favor.
The US is a signatory on United Nations human rights law regarding the judicial treatment of juveniles and we are also currently the worst world human rights violator of the law that we signed too. Does it surprise you that the US would be the worst country in the world by far in violation of a world human rights law that is nearly universally-respected by all but a very few outlaw nations? How does it make you feel to be a member of a select club of outlaws which ONLY includes Iran, Israel, and Somalia among our planet's over 200 nations? How would you feel if all of the other nations decided to jointly cut us off from raw materials or any other foreign trade because we violate international human rights as badly as we do, since we can not possibly survive on our own remaining raw materials at this point???
What is so difficult about respecting human rights recognized by 99% of the entire rest of the world regarding juvenile justice???
14 years olds know the consequences of MURDER unless they are mentally retarded. That is one of the most ridiculous statements I have seen on the web.
If you're not going to execute murderers, leave them in prison.
But the facts are in, and they are that people of this age simply have not had time for their brains to fully develop. Yeah, I know, they don't just deserve life without parole, they deserve death, evolution is a hoax, and so is global climate change.
Denial of the scientific process isn't sufficient reason to imprison these kids. No matter what FOX or your bible says, science is still our best option for making informed decisions.
It's always easy to be magnanomous when it doesn't have any effect on you personally. It's easy to be a philanthropist with other peoles money. Let's make it up close and personal for the left and see how 'forgiving' they really are. Let's open halfway houses for these rehabilitated killers financed by a special tax on people like Soros and Hollywood and place them in the Kennedy's, Clinton's, Reid's, and Streisand's neighborhood.
I don't want to waste one nickel trying to "save" them. A lot of 14 year olds are far from being "children". If it is proven that the person intended and knew exactly what they were doing, then so be it!