Supreme Court bans life w/out parole for 14-year-olds

http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/25/12398519-court-strikes-down-mandatory-sentences-of-life-imprisonment-without-parole-for-young-murderers


Okay, no problem, just make them eligible for parole in 70 years.

Lawyers argued that life without parole sentences for 14 year old murderers goes against the 8th Amendment, about the whole cruel and unusual thing. You know what? No matter what their lives are like in prison, they HAVE lives, unlike their victims so I don't see the problem.

Supernova wrote: Lawyers argued that life without parole sentences for 14 year old murderers goes against the 8th Amendment, about the whole cruel and unusual thing. You know what? No matter what their lives are like in prison, they HAVE lives, unlike their victims so I don't see the problem.

Life without parole for a 14 yr old is way too harsh, I don't care what they did.

Nystyle709 wrote:Life without parole for a 14 yr old is way too harsh, I don't care what they did.

Why? 14 is damn well old enough to know murder is wrong and you don't do it, these kids didn't get life sentences for spitting on the sidewalk.

Supernova wrote:

Why? 14 is damn well old enough to know murder is wrong and you don't do it, these kids didn't get life sentences for spitting on the sidewalk.

Because it's one of these fucked up mandatory sentencing laws.

“State law mandated that each juvenile die in prison even if a judge or jury would have thought that his youth and its attendant characteristics, along with the nature of his crime, made a lesser sentence (for example, life with the possibility of parole) more appropriate,” noted Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote the majority opinion for the court.

No one said they have to get parole. Just that they can't be automatically ineligible just because of their age. Or lack of.

Nystyle709 wrote:Life without parole for a 14 yr old is way too harsh, I don't care what they did.

Supernova wrote:Why? 14 is damn well old enough to know murder is wrong and you don't do it, these kids didn't get life sentences for spitting on the sidewalk.

For one thing, I don't think that EVERY murderer necessarily deserves a life sentence. I think the sentence should depend on many factors (ie: motive; circumstances of the crime; background and mental state of the perpetrator; whether or not they demonstrate remorse; whether or not they could be rehabilitated; the likelihood of being a repeat offender if released, etc). Some murderer's deserve 25 years, some deserve life, some deserve life without parole and others deserve the death penalty. I don't believe every "murder" should be judged equally.

captainbryce wrote:For one thing, I don't think that EVERY murderer necessarily deserves a life sentence. I think the sentence should depend on many factors (ie: motive; circumstances of the crime; background and mental state of the perpetrator; whether or not they demonstrate remorse; whether or not they could be rehabilitated; the likelihood of being a repeat offender if released, etc). Some murderer's deserve 25 years, some deserve life, some deserve life without parole and others deserve the death penalty. I don't believe every "murder" should be judged equally.

And how do you determine who is okay to let out in 25 years based on what they do now?

Supernova wrote:And how do you determine who is okay to let out in 25 years based on what they do now?

I think the sentence should depend on many factors (ie: motive; circumstances of the crime; background and mental state of the perpetrator; whether or not they demonstrate remorse; whether or not they could be rehabilitated; the likelihood of being a repeat offender if released, etc).

I don't know. I have no problem with giving a length sentence to a fourteen year old who committed an egregious crime, but a life sentence I would defer until they are eighteen. After that, reevaluate the crime, the sentence, and the individuals behavior and current mental state; then make a more final sentencing on it.

Some kids I think they need to flip the switch the minute they turn 18, like those two sorry sons of bitches that kidnapped, sodomized and murdered that 2 year old boy Jamie Bulger, both killers were only 10 years old, served 10 years out of a 20 year sentence and got new identities and new lives. They should never have gotten out.

Supernova wrote:Some kids I think they need to flip the switch the minute they turn 18, like those two sorry sons of bitches that kidnapped, sodomized and murdered that 2 year old boy Jamie Bulger, both killers were only 10 years old, served 10 years out of a 20 year sentence and got new identities and new lives. They should never have gotten out.

Yes, this is the sort of "get away with murder" that outrages me. In a just world a murderer like that would stay in a cage until he is forgiven - by his victim.