Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bacasper]

What do we do in a case like this?

Killer, 13, sent to juvenile detention until age 21

By Gabriel Falcon, CNN
June 17, 2010 -- Updated 2007 GMT (0407 HKT)

(CNN) -- A Michigan judge ordered a 13-year-old boy convicted of murdering a woman during a robbery to remain in juvenile detention until he turns 21.

Wayne County Judge Sheila Gibson gave Demarco Harris a blended sentence. The Detroit teen, who committed the crime when he was 12, will be re-evaluated by the court after his 21st birthday.

Depending on the court's findings, Harris will either be released from custody or sentenced as an adult to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If Harris is convicted of a felony while he is in custody, he will automatically be sentenced as an adult to life in prison, the judge said.

"There are really no happy endings in a case like this," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym I. Worthy said in a statement. "My heart goes out to the family of the victim who have lost a loved one due to a violent and senseless act."

Harris was found guilty earlier this year of murdering Trisha Babcock during a robbery. The 24-year-old woman was shot to death inside her parked car in Detroit on August 1, 2009.

The victim's father called the sentence unfair. "I feel he should definitely spend the rest of his life in prison," Steven Babcockn told CNN. "For him to have a chance or opportunity to be set free when he is 21 is not justice for my daughter."

Babcock said he wanted the judge to set an example. "Just because you're 12, 13, 14 doesn't mean you can murder somebody and be set free when you are 21," he said.

Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, said Harris will be confined to a secure juvenile facility where offenders convicted of serious violent felonies are heavily monitored.

[Leon]

Very tricky, it is a child with their whole life in front of them, and not fully developed as far as decision making goes. Also the costs of housing him for life are high, but that person who is dead is dead forever, not just 8 years. I'm glad I don't have to decide.

[Hyeon Een]

It should be looked at in this way:

(1) Can we make this person a productive member of society through rehabilitation? If 'no' go to (3)
(2) This person can be 'fixed', so let's fix them. Rehabilitate them. Make them a productive member of society. Let's try and keep them away from hardened criminals in the process. As soon as they're fixed, let's get them being useful and send them back into society.
(3) Lock them away forever or shoot them. Preferably the former since there are so many cases of courts being flat out wrong for more reasons than can be counted.

Sentences of 10 or 20 or 30 years make no sense. Either the person has no place being in society, or they need re-programming. Locking them up with criminals for years on end will probably not make them better people. Jail is stupid. You train criminals or you set back people who might help society. Neither is a good use of national resources.

[Louis VI]

[Sergio Stefanuto]

Does anyone want to bet me 10 schillings that the boy in question is a fatherless child of the welfare state?

[bacasper]

[Leon]