LogFAQs > #952529728

streamofthesky posted...

The prosecutors wouldn't even try them as adults.

Because they're, you know, not adults.



streamofthesky posted...

Plenty of 15 year olds have been tried as adult and gotten prison time, and for crimes less heinous than this.

And most of the time, people whine about that, too.

Even putting aside the fact that you know literally nothing about this case other than what you've seen online, and don't actually know whether the two in question are remorseful, defiant, apologetic, callous, confused, mentally unstable, or any number of other factors that would influence whether or not a prosecutor would push for a stronger conviction, there's always a case to be made (and one that absolutely WOULD have been made if they HAD been convicted of a major sentence) that simply throwing them in prison accomplishes absolutely nothing of value other than pretty much guaranteeing that they likely come out the other side of the system as hardened criminals.

Most teenagers have shit judgment in general. In this case, it's not that hard to argue that the entire situation escalated far beyond what they originally intended. The US justice system isn't a simple consequentialist system - intent matters almost as much as outcome. That can be a HUGE mitigating factor in this case (even for adults, it can be the difference between 10 years and 100 years).

And that's even ignoring the statement in that article itself that flat-out says that the 13-year old couldn't legally be prosecuted as an adult even if everyone involved wanted to, because existing DC law doesn't allow it (because again, children that young are by definition not considered to be mentally capable of understanding the consequences of their actions to a sufficient degree necessary to be fully culpable for their criminal actions).



streamofthesky posted...

No one expected them to get life in jail or anything, but this is outrageous.

They're still probably going to be incarcerated for years. They'll just get passed into psych and social rehab programs rather than jail.

Which, to be fair, may still result in them getting out as hardened criminals, with no remorse for their prior actions, and likely to commit further violent crimes. But it would still be far more likely to reform or rehabilitate them than simply throwing them into general population and then throwing them back on to the street in another 20 years when they make parole and have no real education and piss-poor social skills.
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