Baby Shooting
Before the 1800’s, children who committees crime did not received any preferential treatment. They were punished and imprisoned alongside adults. It wasn’t till England adapted the principle “parens patriae” when juveniles started to see a small change because this principle allowed “the government to take place of parents in dealing with children who broke the law” (Schmalleger (2009) but as time went on the principle caused many controversies because in the middle of the nineteenth century the child-saver movement begun. The movement “espoused a philosophy of productivity and eschewed idleness and unprincipled behavior”. Schmalleger (2009) Not long after the controversies Illinois decide to create a law that would become the model for the juvenile court statutes throughout the United States. This statute created a different court system for juvenile delinquent.
The new court system provides rehabilitation and opportunities for the juveniles. This means that the court focus on the offenders instead of the punishment. This became questionable because juvenile crime was still at a rise throughout the 1990. Because crime was still at a rise the state passed a law that made punishment mandatory. This made it easier to punish juvenile instead of focusing on their rehabilitation. Even though the law was passed our present juvenile system still differs substantially from the adult system.
As more minors are committing violent crime such as murder, rape and armed robbery. Justice has been faced with two difficult decisions as if they should offer juvenile offenders smaller sentences because of their age or if they should be tired as adult. As justice is faced with this difficult decision I would like to discuss this baby shooting case that happen in Georgia. I will discuss five reasons why the prosecutor should try to convince the judge to convict the juvenile an adult and five reasons why the defense attorney should convince the judge that the juvenile should be tried in the juvenile court. By doing this I will give you a better understanding why justice if faced with this difficult discussion.
To have a better understanding I will summarize the story. The story took place in the small quit town in Brunswick, George. A mother and her 13-month-old baby where walking back from the post office. When two juvenile boys came up to her and the older of the two boys demanded for money. When she replied that she did not have any money the juvenile grabbed her purse and open fire he hit her on her leg. Then ran off with her purse, out of nowhere the juvenile came back a shoot the baby in the face. Both the 17 and 14 year old teens were charged with murder.