Ahh, that is very different my friend.... those were not accidental shots fired. Totally intentional. And he is 17, not 12......
I have never heard of a minor ever actually getting executed, I think that would make the front page of most newspapers so i doubt that it has happened in recent history. As for the death penalty in general, I think that a true life sentence with absolutely no chance for parole would be better and possibly even cheaper.
Life in prison for a minor in this legal climate does not truly mean they will spend the rest of their life behind bars, they will get let out if they exhibit remorse and good behavior.
a number of minors were executed last year in the US. I will have to ask my friend how many. I've learned something in dealing with this organization: nobody believes them. 'till you talk to the parents. or happen to be one yourself. i have testified in the matter of abuse of police authority. in doing so, i have heard the stories of other people. i have my own experiences. we all have one thing in common: if we hadn't experienced it ourselves, we wouldn't believe the other person's story. the things that happen are simply beyond belief. but they do happen. i know people whose children are tied up in DCF or the juvenile justice system. either these people are collectively delusional, or there are things going on that would simply frighten the daylights out of any normal person. I linked to the site in my post above. believe it.
Please do. To be honest, I do not believe ANY minors were executed last year. There were only 72 executions in the entire nation, and at the end of 2001 the youngest person on death row in the entire country was 19 years old! Before Optional comes flying out of left field calling me a liar and trying to deceive ET members, here's the link to the Dept. of Justice's Bureau of Justice Capital Punishment Statistics page: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm I checked out the site. Interesting. What I feel is lost in all this hand-wringing is the fact that juveniles commit some horrendous crimes, and then because they are juveniles, they are sentenced leniently. What of the victims? What about their rights? What about the juveniles who rape or kill, and because they're not adults are released after relatively short terms and then go on to do so again? Let me point you to this: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/offagetab.htm As you can see, from 1973 to 1999, juveniles were committing well over half a million "serious violent crimes" a year, sometimes over a million!! ("Serious violent crime" includes rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and homicide). In 2000 and 2001, the number dropped under the half-million mark but still over 400,000 crimes per year. The fact that juveniles are even in the system to begin with stems from the fact that they did something against the law. As your friend's site points out, shooting paintballs isn't murder, nor should it be treated as such. There should be punishment of some kind meted out. Kids being kids, they need to be taught a lesson. But that juveniles are committing serious violent crime to the tune of several hundred thousand times a year, I find it hard to be sympathetic overall. Unlike Optional, I don't care if it's an adult Saudi terrorist or a 15-year-old punk who harms me or my family.
you bring up the obvious and relevant questions. in no other ways are juveniles accorded the rights of adults. why should they have only the 'right' to be tried as an adult? They do not have the right to vote, no matter how their behavior may be judged as being 'mature.' the issue isn't whether or not they commit gruesome crimes. the issue is that they are dealt with by a double standard. the solution would be to treat them as children who commit gruesome crimes -- or to accord them the rights and privileges of adults in every other sphere of their lives, which of course is unreasonable. there is no age at which a crime becomes a child's crime or an adult's crime. When one witnesses the utter lack of justice that these children experience (remember that there is much much more to this than the high profile cases) -- that is, the complete prone-ness of the system to mete out <i>injustice</i> -- one can't help but wonder how fit the juvenile justice system is to render life and death decisions over childrens' lives.
Chasinfla, I respect your opinion but I don't know what "life and death" decisions you're referring to when it comes to these "children." When have juveniles been executed and under what circumstances? Is John Lee Malvo the type of case you're referring to? He is a juvenile who murdered several people. Do I think his actions deserve capital punishment? Absolutely. Are some juveniles treated excessively harsh? Not knowing much about this subject beyond the occasional news story, I would have to say yes. Is it rampant and systematic in nature? I don't know. You seem to think it is, so if you post specific cases and data that would be helpful. All the best.
im still doing my homework on the number, so bear with me. is it 'rampant?' I guess you'd think so if it were your child. i think the website cites cases of dysfunction in general in the juvenile justice system locally. she gets calls from people all over the country who've had similar experiences. two things going on here -- minors being executed and mistreatment in the juvenile justice system. children on suicide watch ignored til found dead (this seems to be a recurring problem); children beaten up and lacking medical attention (beaten by others, beaten by guards). a 14 yo girl given life w/o parole because her companion killed a cab driver (and she had nothing at all to do with it). things of this nature.
truly excellent points, chas...i couldn't agree more. did W execute any children during his tenure in the lonestar state??? or was it just retards with the intellects of children?? (sorry, couldn't resist a chance to harangue duh-bya -- few things are more amusing to me than one retard passing final judgment on another)