Juveniles’ life without parole.
A juvenile who has been sentenced to life without parole deserves an opportunity to be rehabilitated and given a second chance. I believe in punishment for crime and a practical system of justice. There are basically two systems of justice, firstly equal treatment for all and this is to say that no person should be given preferential treatment because of status, personal influence, personal wealth and no person should be treated otherwise because of the lack of such advantage. Secondly, in the legal process, people should be punished in proportioned to the seriousness of their crime. People should get what they deserve because punishment should be neither too light or too severe. Why do we punish wrongdoers and what do we expect to get from punishing an individual? It is said that for everyone who has been wronged the one thing they all have I common is the desire for retribution. Meaning, because someone has done something bad to you, something equally bad should be done to the offender an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I believe that this process is short-sighted, and it opens the door to create a moral imbalance that must be corrected. The United States of America is the only country in the world that sentences juveniles to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Alaska, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kentucky, and Oregon are the only states that do not sentence juvenile offenders under 18 without
Life without parole is a waste of life. Juveniles have been sentenced to life without parole. Juveniles are never given second chances. I believe that rehabilitation is necessary it gives hope to them. In juveniles Don't deserve life by Gail garinger she states ¨nationwide, 79 young adolescents have been sentenced to die in prison. These children were told that they could never change and that no one cared what became of them¨. In on punishment and teen killer by jenifer jenkins she states ¨The juvenile death penalty was abolished here years ago and a life sentence still allows a great deal of good living to be done even from behind bars¨. After considering both sides
All juveniles should not receive life sentences for felony crimes committed one time. Every year in the US, children as young as 13 years of age are sentenced to spend the rest of their years of life in prison; sometimes, without the option of parole. Juvenile life without parole may also be known as “JLWOP.” Even though there’s a consensus saying that a child cannot be tried or held at the same standards as an adult and recognize that children are empowered to a higher level of treatment and protection, the US still allow for children to be tried and/or punished as an adult.
Prior to watching the documentary Second Chance Kids, I did not realize the amount of juveniles sentenced to life in prison without parole. The statistics throughout the documentary were shocking. For example, across the country, there are more than two thousand people convicted of murder as juveniles and sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole (Dornstein, 2017).
They are many different article that talk about teen killers but Garinger is the most accountable in her work and uses the most and best ethos. She wrote the paper called “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences.” In her write she argues about how kids are just kids and don’t have a fully developed brain. They don’t deserve to be given a adult sentence and deserve to have a second chance to have a life of no crimes. One step she uses to make us think that she is credible is the way she uses how teens are just tempted by other to do something they shouldn’t. “Peer pressure also makes them promising candidates for rehabilitation”(8). This use of works makes the reader feel that if they are peer pressured to do something then maybe the tens deserve
On December 17, 1992, 15 year-old Jacob Ind went to school after having murdered his mother and stepfather in the early hours of that morning. In an interview with Frontline he recalled, “I remember I was sitting in the police station and this is how out of touch of reality I was. I had a small amount of marijuana, like an eighth of an ounce, in my bedroom. And I 'm telling my brother, 'You got to get the marijuana or else I 'm in trouble” (Profile Jacob Ind). His attorneys contended that he was acting in self-defense, claiming that the murders were the climax of years of insult by his parents. On June 17, 1994, he was convicted and handed a mandatory sentence of lifetime without parole. This is just one of many life experiences of juveniles sentenced to life without parole in the U.S. There have been many other instances where the juvenile was not the real murderer, but was however given the lifetime without parole sentence. In those instances the defendant would have been convicted of felony murder, in which the defendant could have just been an active participant in a crime during which a murder was committed and consequently, spend life in jail without parole. Felony murder came into play in the case of Devon and Jovon Knox, in July 2007, the 17-year-old twins set out to steal a car together (Sentencing Juveniles). During the car jack, one of the brothers shot and killed the car’s owner. The panel could not decide which brother pulled
Gail Garinger in the article, Juveniles don’t deserve Life Sentences,claims that juveniles should not get a life sentence. Garinger supports her claims by first lists teens and young adults that have done terrible crimes. She then describes homicide as the worst crime,but explains how the Supreme Court won't give juveniles a life sentence for it. Lastly, the author explains how criminologists promoted a superpredator but how it never came to be. Garinger’s purpose is to inform people how kids don't deserve life sentences in order to inform people that they still have so much to live for. The author writes in a formal tone for the readers. This work is significant because it informed me on all the lives that have gotten life sentences.
Garinger was a former juvenile court judge, so Garinger is a very credible source when it comes to the topic of juvenile criminals. To support Garinger’s credible usage of ethos, he demonstrates that in 2005, Supreme Court acknowledged that even though juveniles have committed terrible crimes such as homicide “juvenile offenders cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders” (6). This technique of providing the opinions of Supreme Court helps build Garinger’s credibility, and even more so that he is was a former juvenile court judges, so he most likely has a personal relationships with the Supreme Court. Readers feel sympathy to any juvenile who have been charged as adults and been sentenced to life without parole.
Retribution is what most commonly referred to as the “just deserts” model that says the punishment should match the “degree of harm a criminal has inflicted on their victims” (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2013, p.6). In other words,
The U.S. leads the world in the practice of sentencing juveniles to life without parole, claiming 99.7 percent of all youth globally serving this sentence. In fact, there are only seven such cases outside of the U.S. Concurrently, The House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security has been gathering testimony on a bill H.R. 2289 Juvenile Justice and Accountability and Improvement Act; this bill would mandate parole hearings for JLWOP prisoners. This bill covers federal cases and gives
2) This will examine the use of juveniles sentenced to life without parole in law practices. Jurisdictions are now dropping those sentences and the ones that do are those of
Sentencing people to life without parole are for people who in a sense will never every change. People who are beyond hope and don’t have the capacity to change their lives around. We don’t let kids do what adults do, we don’t let them drive, go to parties, let them smoke, let them drink, let them make important decisions, let them join the military. For many juveniles who are sentenced to life in prison first end up having a hard time. They have a hard time because the services that you think they should receive are not available to them. For example states such as Florida when sentencing juveniles to prison for life it may take several years for them to continue their school education because life without parole are the lowest priority on
In 2010, Linda Marie Kelley conducted research on Juveniles Serving Life Without Parole. Her research attempted to address the reasons why juveniles sentenced to life without parole commit violent crimes. Some of the reasons she discovered were parental neglect, permissive parenting, childhood trauma & abuse, and peer influence. These underlying reasons have a major impact on youth offenders and the type of crimes they tend to commit.
as young as thirteen are sentenced as juveniles to life in prison without parole. Americans today
Juveniles should not be considered adults when sentenced for a crime because they do not have the same standards as an adult, they are still developing and life in prison is too cruel of a punishment. Juveniles do not have the same rights and privileges as adults. According to research, the brains in teens are still developing. Teenager still in high school deserves a life sentence. If juveniles have not been able to know what life is, they should not be sentence to life.
Throughout America crime is rising and the majority of the victims are youth. The government solution to tackling this issue is institutionalizing criminals, without a second look. However, the prison system created as a rehabilitation center, not a cage for humans. As, I read News One article “Should juveniles receive a life sentence without parole”, I became conflicted on whether juveniles should receive a life sentence without parole. On one hand, I believe if you do the crime, you do the time. Whereas the other part believes that juvenile are not capable of grasping the seriousness of their actions, so the government should not take away their opportunity to show the courts that they have grown. In my belief, giving a juvenile life without