US child faces life without parole for crime @ age 11

sorry need to highlight some fucked up things here:

Touche. I thought the same thing.

And what do they think will grow up from that. "Designed for children"- for the son of Hitman maybe.

Wonder if prison has spongebob sheets?

Have fun, kid, if you're guilty, you deserve it.

At 11??? My 12 year-old nephew barely has (as in sometimes he doesn't) the maturity to not bang his knife and fork on the table at family dinners, and you expect someone younger than that to have the maturity to comprehend the finality and consequences of death? Not likely.

I have no problem with punishing the kid, but life in prison without parole. Seems ridiculous to me.

As Monty Burns once said, "Oh how I love America and its hysterical fear of crime that it allows for a child to be tried as an adult"

Oh I agree. I don't think they should just say, "oh, well you're 11 so don't do it again and run along now." I wonder what would happen in Canada? I think YCJA kicks in at 12? There definitely needs to be some serious consequence for killing even if the killer is young, but "life is life" life imprisonment is, as you say, ridiculous.



Everything in life can be answered with a Simspons quote.

The problem with what we do currently, send them to juvie, is that it just hardens the kid and makes him a better criminal. So if there was any chance he would reform, it's lessened by putting him in juvie for 3 years, which is the max you can give someone sentenced as a minor. So we need to reform the prison system if we don't just want to release tougher criminals on the streets.

OTOH, Wayne Glowaki, who helped kill Reena Virk, did his ten years (adult sentence max for underage) and seems to have reformed himself. He's made peace with Virk's family and is speaking in schools about what he did. So it can be done.

Gunnair - why not just execute him if you feel an 11 year old is totally responsible for his actions?

If you're old enough to commit a premeditated multiple murder then you're old enough to spend the rest of your life contemplating that act. By the way, while the sentencing is automatic, there is nothing in US law that precludes a state governor or the President from granting clemency in the future if the kid truly reforms. Otherwise, I'd say he's going to be in a place where society will be safe from him.

Are you saying this kid is unusually mature? If you're old enough to spend the rest of your life contemplating you acts, why aren't you old enough to drive a car, get married, get a job, take out a mortgage, or vote?

As Andy said, why not just execute him?

No secret that I am one of the Hang'em high crowd! But I am in a quandry about this one. No question that the kid's mind is seriously twisted. I'm not so sure about execution here. But I am sure that the answer is not to put him into a reform 'school' with A 'Dr. Spock' type shrink either. The authorities go ahead with the 'plan' that they have in mind for this kid until/unless someone comes up with a better solution.