I think crime is wrong no matter the age. I think murder is worse no matter the age. BUT I also believe in second chances and rehabilitation. I am not saying that every juvenile who gets life deserves a second chance. BUT I think that circumstances should be weighed. What was this child’s life like, mentally, physically, etc… was there abuse? Can the child get mental help and cure the demons prompting the violence? Furthermore, this IS a racial thing. If it were up to “whitey” he’d lock every black and brown kid up for his natural life… How is it so easy to give up on the youth? Which reminds me of “The Other Wes Moore”. If you’ve been following my blog you may remember this post. It was a book a read about to gentlemen names Wes Moore. They lived two completely different lives, in adulthood, but in childhood their paths were very similar. The author, Wes Moore, includes an antidote about his friend who was told to stay away from him by a teacher. The friend instead thinks, how is it so easy to give up on a 12 year old. It’s a sad reality, but people do it all the time. And sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of parole is no different. Society, likely, failed them twice. First, by not offering opportunity. People believe this country is filled with equal opportunity, but it’s not. Let’s look at education. This is the most fundamental thing that can be offered to anyone…knowledge. Knowledge is the source of power because it opens one’s mind to a world previously unknown. But if you look at schools in poor/bad/ghetto/urban/forgotten neighborhoods, you will find graffiti desks, metal detectors, and children treated as criminals with random searches and assuming stares. How is this an equal opportunity? Your neighborhood injustices cannot be escaped even in the quest for knowledge. On and off the streets you are seen as a worthless criminal. The second failure being, the opportunity for rehabilitation. When you dive deeper into the juvenile lifer population you find that most of them have had psychological trauma that went untreated and lead them down the wrong paths… their paths never being steered in the other direction thru rehabilitation or outreach…

Maybe I am over simplifying, but check out this article and do some research of your own. These are my conclusions and likely, notjustmythoughts.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/juvenile_life_in_prison_without_parole.html