qwerty
10-07-2007, 02:20 PM
Here are 3 stories from Day 1 of a 3-day series on life sentences, I will post other articles as they appear...
Sentencing children to life behind bars
A throw-away-the-key political climate means longer sentences — and fewer paroles
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2007 01:36:07 AM PDT
The year 2002 was a bad one for youth violence in Salinas, and the courts were filled with teenagers facing life sentences.
A 15-year-old girl was killed when a 17-year-old tried to shoot her boyfriend. Then 16-year-old Jaime Hernandez, after being attacked earlier in the day, shot and killed three rival gang members in one swoop, netting one of the county's longest sentences ever, 180 years to life.
Three teens involved in a nonfatal shootout that year also received life terms.
During the past two decades, scores of Monterey County teenagers have been swept up into violence and gangs, and into the changing politics of their times.
In courts around the country, life sentences are being handed down at a dramatically increasing rate, and this new crop of "lifers" is getting younger than ever.
Read full article here: http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_7109826?nclick_check=1
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A change of heart on young lifers
Pastor later counseled youth whose life sentence was reduced
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2007 01:36:31 AM PDT
Pastor Frank Gomez said he can understand why California voters approved life sentences for juveniles.
In the office of his Methodist church in East Salinas, Gomez remembers when he, too, was a hardliner about violent crime. He spoke about it between the interruptions of children in his church's after-school program, the East Salinas Family Center.
"When I first came to Salinas," he said, "during the first few months, there was a young man here, a boy actually ... wreaking havoc right here in this area."
Read more here: http://www.montereyherald.com/search/ci_7109838?IADID=Search-www.montereyherald.com-www.montereyherald.com
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Crime and the teenage brain
Judgment not fully developed, scientists say
The Monterey County Herald
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2007 01:42:21 AM PDT
While voters who approved California's Proposition 21 may not agree, some courts have begun to affirm what scientists have asserted for some time: that adolescent brains function in ways significantly different from adults.
In a federal case ordering the release of convicted second-degree murderer Robert Rosenkrantz, the court held that "The susceptibility of juveniles to immature and irresponsible behavior means their irresponsible conduct is not as morally reprehensible as that of an adult."
And in a ruling in September ordering an overhaul of the state's parole board, Santa Clara County Judge Linda Condron wrote that age is an especially important factor when the impetus behind a shooting is "youth group or gang rivalries, posturing, and threats which mature adults would not have been caught up in."
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death penalty for juveniles in 2005, it did not cite scientific research, but it did hold that a minor's "culpability or blameworthiness is diminished, to a substantial degree, by reason of youth and immaturity."
Advocates such as the Juvenile Justice Center of the American Bar Association and Human Rights Watch have used science to argue against the death penalty and life without parole for minors.
Read more here:
http://www.montereyherald.com/search/ci_7109878?IADID=Search-www.montereyherald.com-www.montereyherald.com
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Sentencing children to life behind bars
A throw-away-the-key political climate means longer sentences — and fewer paroles
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2007 01:36:07 AM PDT
The year 2002 was a bad one for youth violence in Salinas, and the courts were filled with teenagers facing life sentences.
A 15-year-old girl was killed when a 17-year-old tried to shoot her boyfriend. Then 16-year-old Jaime Hernandez, after being attacked earlier in the day, shot and killed three rival gang members in one swoop, netting one of the county's longest sentences ever, 180 years to life.
Three teens involved in a nonfatal shootout that year also received life terms.
During the past two decades, scores of Monterey County teenagers have been swept up into violence and gangs, and into the changing politics of their times.
In courts around the country, life sentences are being handed down at a dramatically increasing rate, and this new crop of "lifers" is getting younger than ever.
Read full article here: http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_7109826?nclick_check=1
------
A change of heart on young lifers
Pastor later counseled youth whose life sentence was reduced
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2007 01:36:31 AM PDT
Pastor Frank Gomez said he can understand why California voters approved life sentences for juveniles.
In the office of his Methodist church in East Salinas, Gomez remembers when he, too, was a hardliner about violent crime. He spoke about it between the interruptions of children in his church's after-school program, the East Salinas Family Center.
"When I first came to Salinas," he said, "during the first few months, there was a young man here, a boy actually ... wreaking havoc right here in this area."
Read more here: http://www.montereyherald.com/search/ci_7109838?IADID=Search-www.montereyherald.com-www.montereyherald.com
------
Crime and the teenage brain
Judgment not fully developed, scientists say
The Monterey County Herald
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2007 01:42:21 AM PDT
While voters who approved California's Proposition 21 may not agree, some courts have begun to affirm what scientists have asserted for some time: that adolescent brains function in ways significantly different from adults.
In a federal case ordering the release of convicted second-degree murderer Robert Rosenkrantz, the court held that "The susceptibility of juveniles to immature and irresponsible behavior means their irresponsible conduct is not as morally reprehensible as that of an adult."
And in a ruling in September ordering an overhaul of the state's parole board, Santa Clara County Judge Linda Condron wrote that age is an especially important factor when the impetus behind a shooting is "youth group or gang rivalries, posturing, and threats which mature adults would not have been caught up in."
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death penalty for juveniles in 2005, it did not cite scientific research, but it did hold that a minor's "culpability or blameworthiness is diminished, to a substantial degree, by reason of youth and immaturity."
Advocates such as the Juvenile Justice Center of the American Bar Association and Human Rights Watch have used science to argue against the death penalty and life without parole for minors.
Read more here:
http://www.montereyherald.com/search/ci_7109878?IADID=Search-www.montereyherald.com-www.montereyherald.com
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