Trying a 12-Year-Old As An Adult? PA Says, No Problem

by Matt Kelley · 2010-04-06 15:41:00 UTC
Topics:

A Pennsylvania judge ruled this week that 12-year-old Jordan Brown will be tried as an adult for the shooting murder of his father’s girlfriend. If he's convicted, Brown will become quite possibly the youngest person in the world sentenced to life with parole. He was 11 when he committed the crime.

I’m not going to argue categorically against occasionally trying teenagers crimes in the adult system — but I think its use should be so exceedingly rare that it almost disappears. And Brown’s case makes it clear that we need to set a minimum age for adult prosecution (above age 11) and for life without parole sentences (LWOP).

There’s a reason we call it “adult court” — it’s for adults. Blurring this line in the name of public safety is like putting non-sex offenders on the sex offender registry. Oh, wait. We do that, too.

We wrote about Brown's case in March when the judge was hearing evidence on whether to try him as an adult. It's clear here that the judge made the wrong decision.

It's not exactly a good time to be sending children to adult prison until they die, either. We're awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in two juvenile LWOP cases, and several states are anticipating restrictions and ending the practice altogether. (Not Pennsylvania, though.)

I’m not a child psychologist, but I think it’s clear that a 12-year-old is still learning about the world and isn’t 100% responsible for his actions. Of course, there were psychologists on both sides of this case — canceling each other out with their for-hire expertise.

Though the Supreme Court seemed reluctant to draw a bright line age limit during oral arguments, that’s exactly what I hope the justices do. We no longer execute children convicted of committing crimes before they turned 18 — life without parole is a punishment nearly as final as death and it should be treated as such.

If anyone presents the case for restrictions on juvenile life without parole and on caution in overusing adult courts for juveniles, it’s Jordan Brown.

Photo Credit: Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.

RELATED PETITION

Tell The Federal Government to Regulate Tasers
SIGN PETITION
121 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
Why Private Prisons Should Learn From the Pentagon
NEXT STORY:
Make the Call! Stop the Torture of Special Needs Children in Massachusetts

COMMENTS (9)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.