Devil’s advocate. Then why is it even possible to be charged as a child with murder? Murder by definition involves planning. If we’re going to try every kid who commits a type of crime as an adult, why do we even have a separate juvenile justice system?
False. If this were true, “premeditated murder” would be redundant.
If somebody comes home to find their lover in bed with a stranger and shoots both of them to death, those were both murders, and they were not planned for.
Kids can very much plan a murder, as this one did. He planned to smuggle a gun into school, get out of class to go get the gun, and then re-enter the class for the shooting.
It went sideways when he was locked out of his intended target, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t plan it and, in fact, started planning when he was a year younger.
That looks bad now that I typed it out, but it’s supposed to be like double jeopardy… But again, not really. If a teen is committing one of the worst crimes an adult could possibly commit, and it’s so callous, there’s a point of no return. Where that point is, I don’t know, and of course younger would get even murkier. I’d say obviously the parent could still be culpable as in any accessory to crime, though.
Old enough to plan and commit murders, old enough to be charged and tried for murder.
Devil’s advocate. Then why is it even possible to be charged as a child with murder? Murder by definition involves planning. If we’re going to try every kid who commits a type of crime as an adult, why do we even have a separate juvenile justice system?
False. If this were true, “premeditated murder” would be redundant.
If somebody comes home to find their lover in bed with a stranger and shoots both of them to death, those were both murders, and they were not planned for.
Kids can very much plan a murder, as this one did. He planned to smuggle a gun into school, get out of class to go get the gun, and then re-enter the class for the shooting.
It went sideways when he was locked out of his intended target, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t plan it and, in fact, started planning when he was a year younger.
Here’s another: if the child is responsible enough to be charged as an adult, does that mean the parent wasn’t required to be responsible?
I propose(not really): Double Adult-ardy.
That looks bad now that I typed it out, but it’s supposed to be like double jeopardy… But again, not really. If a teen is committing one of the worst crimes an adult could possibly commit, and it’s so callous, there’s a point of no return. Where that point is, I don’t know, and of course younger would get even murkier. I’d say obviously the parent could still be culpable as in any accessory to crime, though.