The Supreme Court  of the United States has a case before it that is of great interest to me. In a nutshell, the court needs  to decide if 14 year olds should be held accountable for murder. It is a difficult decision. Child psychologists say that the brains of 14 year olds are just developing, and they stress that they truly don't understand what they are doing.
And part of me empathizes with the mothers of the murderers, and if it were my child I would not want to see them imprisoned for life.
But what if you were the mother of the murdered child/man? How would you feel then? I had a nephew, father of two, who was working at his second job,at a gas station / convenience store when 3 underage thugs decided to rob the store. They shot and killed him for a grand total of $46 and as many cartons of cigarettes as they could physically carry away seeing as none of them were old enough to have a driver's license, so therefore, no get away car. All were  well under the age of 17, all knew or thought they knew, at the time that they could not be tried as adults, thinking if they were caught, the most that would happen to them was that they would be sent to what is known as "Juvey". Fortunately, the law had been changed earlier that year, and these 3 are now serving life sentences in Florida for brutally murdering my nephew.  My nephew, father of 2, who was working a 2nd job so he could attain the American dream of buying a house.
I shudder to think that perhaps an adult, (anyone over the age of 18), could talk someone younger into being his lookout/accomplice/killer, and use the theory if you are caught, don't sweat it, you are underage and by law the cops cannot touch you, and probably adding that if you are caught the most that will happen is juvenille detention.
I applaud the state of Florida for taking a stand. I wanted justice. And with the current law on the books in Florida, I thought it was served.
I believe the current law makes the potential killer take pause if he thinks there will be serious repercussions. Without consequences, many more will mourn lives taken too soon.



http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/kuntrell-jackson-evan-miller-jailed-life-14-supreme-164654442.html