Annotated Bibliography

Juvenile Justice Videos: 13 year old receives life without parole

State Statistics

California: A juvenile in California is a child under the age of 18. Any child over 14 years of age can be tried in adult criminal court if crime involved murder, rape, or armed robbery. 

New York: A juvenile in the State of New York is anyone under the age of 16 and at least 7 years old. Children 13-15 can be tried as an adult in New York if serious crimes have been committed. 

Illinois: In the state of Illinois a juvenile is a child under the age of 17. Anyone 13 years old and above can be tried as an adult if he or she has previous criminal record. Juveniles of the age of 15 and 16 are immediately tried as an adult if the crime they committed involved murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault, and armed robbery with a firearm.

Florida: In Florida the juvenile age is under 18. In Florida prosecutors are allowed to determine whether the juvenile will be tried as an adult not a judge. To be waived over into adult court juveniles must be at least 14 years old 

Texas: In Texas the juvenile age bracket is 10-under 18. The waiver age to transfer juveniles to adult court is the minimum age of 14. 

Map of how states give juvenile lifetime imprisonment sentences

The map above shows where juveniles were sentenced to lifetime imprisonment for non-homicidal crimes before the U.S. Supreme Court  issued a law forbidding giving life sentence to juveniles who have not committed murder. 

Panel Questions

• After the Supreme Court voted not to have capital punishment for juveniles were all inmates that are adults now but were juveniles when they committed their crime who were put on the death row able to alter their sentence and prevent the death penalty? 
• Do you believe 15 and 16 years old should be sentenced to lifetime imprisonment in they commit murder?
• Do you think it is fair that 19 years old are sentenced to death penalty if they commit murder?
• Do you believe in transferring juveniles that are 12-18 years of age to adult criminal court? 
•  Would you say that if a juvenile's committed crime is rape then they should be up for lifetime imprisonment with parole as their sentence? 

Interviews

 Woodside Rehabilitation Center

ADDRESS: 26 Woodside Dr. East
Colchester, VT 05446
LOCATION: Colchester, Vermont 

NAME: David Emberley, M.A.Ed., C.T., Volunteer Coordinator 

PHONE: (802) 655-4990

Maguire Law Associates, 
ADDRESS: 11 Main Street, Suite 2Essex Junction, Vermont
NAME: Daniel Maguire
PHONE OF PRACTICE:  888-274-4730

 EMAIL: you can email the practice though www.lawyers.com 

NAME: Peter Danles 
JOB: Vermont Parole Board Member
PHONE: (802) 241-2312

EMAIL:pdanles@doc.state.vt.us.

Court Cases

Graham vs. Florida
Terrance Graham was only 16 years old when he was convicted of attempted armed robbery and armed burglary. He served 12 months is prison and was then later released. Six months after his release he committed armed home robbery and was then sentenced to lifetime imprisonment without parole. This is an extremely rare case because its a juvenile being sentenced to life imprisonment when the juvenile was not convicted of murder.  On appeal, Graham argued that sentencing lifetime imprisonment without parole to a juvenile is violating the 8th amendment and moreover constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The state of Florida did not agree and therefore Terrance Graham was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment for a non-homicidal crime in 2006. In 2010, last year this case was brought up again, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy spoke on behalf of the majority of the country who believed that non-homicidal cases of juveniles should not be sentenced to life imprisonment because it completely violates the 8th amendment not to mention the idea of it is rejected by the entire world. This case was soon taken to the Supreme Court where Grahams voice was finally heard. On May 17th 2010 the Supreme court voted 6-3 meaning that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole when the crime was non-homicidal . However, there are still currently 129 adults serving non-parole lifetime imprisonment sentences that were committed as juveniles, 77 of those people are located in Florida. Terrance Graham is now being re-sentenced, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has stated that he will still receive a long sentence for the violent crimes he did commit but not a lifetime sentence. 


Roper v. Simmons 
In 1993 Christopher Simmons brutally murdered Shirley Crook at the age of 17. When the case went on trial the Simmons confessed to murder and even reenacted the murder at the crime scene on videotape. The jury soon recommended the death penalty because of the brutality of the murder and the vast amount of evidence. The courts continued to uphold the death sentence until 2002 when the Atkins v. Virginia case occurred, which overturned the death penalty for the mentally retarded. After that case Simmons filed for a petition for state post conviction relief. Meaning modification of his sentence. Simmons was then sentenced to lifetime imprisonment without parole instead of the death penalty. This case further created the law that the U.S. Supreme Court voted on in which juveniles cannot receive capital punishment (death penalty.) 

Information found on Oyez Database

Current Interpretation

According to the death penalty information center, on May 5, 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that juveniles (people under the age of 18) cannot be sentenced to death penalty for the crimes they committed. This law also applies to people that are over the age of 18 currently but their crime was committed when they were underage. One of the main reasons why this law was pursued was because it was violating several international treaties most importantly the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The U.S. Supreme court also felt a great deal of international pressure where everyone was fully against juveniles sentenced to the death penalty. The juvenile justice system varies from state to state, for example currently in Nevada all juveniles have the right to and are required to have a juvenile court hearing before being transferred if necessary to the adult criminal court according to NCSL (National Conference of State Legislators.) In Vermont the extended age of delinquency jurisdiction is age 20, the usual age bracket of the juvenile justice system in Vermont is 10-17 compared to Texas which is 10-16 instead according to NCJJ State Juvenile Justice Profiles. Generally the basic current laws concerning the juvenile justice system are children under the age of 7 cannot be tried even in juvenile court,  children 7-15 are main candidates for the juvenile court, and children ages 12-18 can be tried in the adult criminal court if their crime is extremely severe such as murder, but if homicide is not involved typically they will be tried in juvenile court according to www.criminal.findlaw.com. Sometime juveniles are tried in adult criminal court for crimes such as armed robbery and rape which are also severe crimes but not as harsh as murder, so minors who have committed armed robbery and rape have a better chance at being tried in juvenile court.  

 http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=19713

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/u-s-supreme-court-roper-v-simmons-no-03-633

http://70.89.227.250:8080/stateprofiles/

http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/juvenile-justice/when-minor-commits-crime.html

Constitutional Connection

The 8th amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, no excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." This amendment forbids some punishment entirely like for example sentencing juvenile death penalty is against the law. Mostly the 8th amendment prevents cruel and unusual punishment inflicted compared to the crime or compared to the competence of the perpetrator. In the Constitution it states what I explained above but does not explain what is considered cruel and unusual punishment, so is giving juveniles lifetime imprisonment cruel or not depending on the severeness of the committed crime? This is another reason that this issue is controversial. 

Issue Explanation

The definition of justice is fair treatment for all people in the distribution of the benefits and burdens of society, the correction of wrongs and injuries, and the gathering of information and making of decisions. But does fair treatment mean equal treatment for all as well? Is is fair to give equal treatment and punishment to adults and minors in the court of law? Many people think that the punishments should be equal. A lot of people believe that if a minor commits murder then murder is murder and that someone who commits that kind of crime should definitely be sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. Others have a completely different view on this issue, some believe that minors brains are not fully mature so they are emotionally different from adults, this effects the process of decision making. A process in which could have prevented pursuing the crime if their brain was matured. And some believe it is just wrong to take away a life of a juvenile for the crime they committed as a child.Currently, the law states that juveniles cannot be sentenced to death penalty but if the crime committed involves homicide then a juvenile can be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.This is a controversial issue because its hard to draw the line at certain ages when every case has different circumstances and when fairly executed punishments turn into cruel and unusual penalties. Who has the authority to decide where the line must be drawn when that line can and will effect the lives of thousands of juveniles across the country? 

Homework #1 Due 3/22/11

There were approximately 2,180,500 juvenile arrests in the United States during 2007 according to the FBI Arrest Statistics. On average this number relatively has stayed the same until now (2011.) 97,070 of those total arrests were violent crimes. Violent crimes include murder (not manslaughter), forcible rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. When a person under the age of 18 commits a crime should the punishment be the same as a 34 year-old's? A 51 year-old's? Should the law only look at the crime and not the characteristics of the person who committed it? Is a crime a crime? Or does your view on a version of punishment change when you see for example the 13 year old receiving it? These are the questions that have not been answered because who really has the right to draw the line at a certain age? Believe it or not in 2007 1,350 murders were committed by underage people and 12,130 murders were committed by adults. The question we must answer is what age is it right to sentence life in jail to.Who deserves adult-like punishment and who does not? 

 Questions:

• Do juvenile punishments differ depending on which state you live in?
• What are the most famous court cases concerning this topic?
• What is the biological evidence that supports NOT sentencing the underage to life imprisonment? (brain development, etc.)