Law in the Black Community

Law in the Black Community

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Date The question of judicial measures for juvenile offenders has always elicited mixed reactions on all spheres of the American justice system While there exists judicial courts to handle criminal prosecutions against minors , these measures are usually applicable to lesser criminal charges . In cases where older juveniles are charged with capital offences like robbery with violence , homicides , most state attorneys will ask the court to try the offenders like adults

Most states have enacted legislations

to provide for adult trials for minors who are deemed adult enough to stand trial in an adult court jurisdiction . Even for those without such legislations , the discretion is always left at the hands of the relevant district attorneys to determine the fate of such minor offenders . The question that matter is not the legal foundation , but the moral and psychological basis for such trial . The immaturity of the offenders coupled with the chance of wrongful execution of the minor based on evidenced extracted through coercion , intimidations makes the case for death penalty for the juvenile offenders untenable , no matter what kind of offence they are suspected of committing . Just like the US Supreme Court held that conviction and hanging of mentally retarded people is a violation of their constitutional rights (Stanford v . Kentucky , 1989 ) due to disproportional nature of the punishment when compared to their culpability , so should such reasoning be applied to the capital offence juveniles . Psychologically , a person under...