As a society, where do we draw the line
regarding how young is too
young to be sentenced to death?
If state Rep.
Jim Pitts , R-Waxahachie , has his
way, the line would be
at age 11 . Pitts is proposing a plan that, among other harsher
penalties for young criminals, would make it possible for 11
-year-olds
to be sentenced to death for capital murder; lower from 14 to
10 the age
at which a juvenile could be certified to stand trial as an adult;
and
allow juveniles to be sentenced to life without the possibility
of
parole.
To make his case, Pitts is seizing on last
month's bloodbath in
Jonesboro, Ark., where two boys, ages 13 and 11 , were charged
with
killing five and wounding 10 others in a schoolyard ambush. It
was an
unimaginable crime and a shock to the human senses.
In the wake of the Jonesboro tragedy, the
outcry from some has been
predictable: Stop shielding children from harsh penalties when
they
commit heinous crimes.
Unfortunately, such mindless acts committed
by juveniles give momentum
to uncreative proposals like Pitts '.
No one is for coddling criminal youths.
Harsh crimes should be met with
harsh consequences. However, the missing element in this "hang
'em high"
atmosphere of politicizing juvenile crime is a way for society
to
prevent children from becoming cold-blooded killers and criminals
in the
first place.
Politicians would do well to listen to
the experts - law enforcers. The
law enforcement community has said for years that harsher punishment
alone will not solve the problem. What they have also said is
that
prevention must be part of the overall solution. Mayor Lee Brown,
who
knows a thing or two about law enforcement, advocates among other
ideas
more after school programs, mentoring and providing children
with
library cards.
It's interesting that many of the same
people who scream for tougher
punishment oppose, even deride spending money on programs that
have a
chance to head children off from lives of violent crime.
Children of today are not the Beaver Cleavers
of yesterday. They are,
however, still children, some good, some bad. If we, as a country
and
state, are resolved only to devise ways to punish our bad kids
more
severely, we are doomed to a sad and endless task.
