Juveniles should be sentenced and incarcerated as adults for violent crimes, such as first degree murder - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... uveniles charged with capital offences have been using the age limit to defend their clients and various state laws have been supporting this argument. The juveniles might not be in a mature state of mind to face such capital charges. Moreover, the defense has been casting the juveniles’ guilt on several on other people including their parents. Indeed, in the De’ Marquise Elkins’s murder case, the defense attempted to cast guilt upon several others, including the childs parents and the laxity in police investigations (“Associated Press” 1). Ideally, the juvenile’s parents are responsible for their children’s action and hence have a leeway to prevent them from committing capital crimes for the first time. This supports the opposition against sentencing and incarcerating juveniles for violent crimes.
The courts of law should sentence and incarcerate the juveniles as adults for violent crimes because they bear sole responsible for such crimes, their innocent parents cannot bear that guilt, evidence and facts proves their guilt, and they can serve in youth corrections on the juvenile charges as they wait to join adult prisons upon conviction. Indeed, the courts should rely on concrete evidence and convict the responsible suspects regardless of their age. In De’ Marquise Elkins’s murder case, the Jurors relied on evidence and deliberated for a long time before finding De’ Marquise Elkins guilty of 11 counts, including two counts of felony murder and one count of malice murder in the March 21 killing of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago in Brunswick (“Associated Press” 1). The court has a duty to place criminal responsibility on the juveniles if they were on sober mind and mental health while committing the capital offenses. Although the juvenile’s parents have a responsibility over their children’s actions, the court should not cast the guilt on such parents if they were innocent. In fact, in the case of De’ Marquise Elkins’s murder case, ...Download file to see next pagesRead More