 |
Group proposes abolishing life sentences for juveniles www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-juveniles-life-sentencesfeb14,0,736
2275.story
Group proposes abolishing life sentences for juveniles
Chicago Tribune By Michael Higgins
February 13, 2008
In a report made public Wednesday, a coalition of lawyers and academics
called for Illinois to abolish sentences for juveniles of life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
The Illinois Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children also
recommended that a parole board consider releasing juveniles sentenced
to these life terms who have already served substantial periods.
In its 40-page report, the coalition said it had interviewed nearly all
of the 103 inmates in Illinois prisons sentenced to life for crimes
committed when they were between the ages of 14 and 17. Nationwide, at
least 2,380 inmates are serving life sentences for crimes they
committed as juveniles.
The coalition argued that no possibility of parole is unfair for even
the most serious juvenile offenders because children are less culpable
than adults and are capable of change.
The report cited recent brain-scanning research that shows that since
their brains are not fully developed, children lack the impulse control
of adults and are more vulnerable to peer pressure.
"Dramatic reform is necessary in order to eliminate this egregious
practice, which has ensnared too many juveniles here in Illinois," said
Randolph Stone, a clinical professor of law at the University of
Chicago and a coalition member.
Some of those convicted as juveniles may deserve parole, especially if
they were accomplices to older offenders and didn't carry out the
actual killing, said Malcolm Young, executive director of the John
Howard Association of Illinois, a prison-watchdog group.
In some cases, Young said, "[the juveniles] were marginally involved in
something like a robbery or drug deal. They didn't necessarily know
there was going to be a murder."
But some victims-rights advocates strongly objected to the
recommendations, particularly the call for parole hearings for the 103
inmates.
"They're talking about retroactively changing a sentence that was duly
given and appealed . . . and affirmed by the judicial system over and
over again," said Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, founder of
IllinoisVictims.org. "This is the part we're just outraged about."
Bishop-Jenkins' sister and brother-in-law, Nancy and Richard Langert,
were killed in 1990 by David Biro, one of the 103 inmates convicted as
juveniles and serving life sentences in Illinois prisons.
The controversy concerns juvenile offenders who were accused of murder
and tried as adults. If convicted in adult court of crimes such as
double homicide or the killing of a police officer, they face life
without the possibility of parole.
In at least a few cases, the judges who sentenced juvenile offenders
expressed misgivings about life without parole but felt they had no
other choice under Illinois law.
In one case, a 15-year-old named Leon Miller was convicted of two
counts of first-degree murder for acting as a lookout for two other
defendants who shot and killed two people in 1997.
The law appeared to call for a sentence of life without parole, but a
Cook County judge refused, calling the sentence "unconscionable" and
sentencing the defendant instead to 50 years.
Bishop-Jenkins argued, however, that most of the 103 inmates are "the
worst of the worst" and deserve no parole. If exceptions do exist,
those inmates can seek executive clemency from the governor, she said.
Bishop-Jenkins said she doesn't think that lawmakers will want to
abolish life without parole for juveniles because there will always be
cases where the public finds it appropriate.
She mentioned the current search for a suspect in the slayings of five
women at a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park.
"Let's say that they find out that this guy is 17 when they catch him?"
she said. "You want him to come up for annual parole hearings?"
Young acknowledged that passing the bill, introduced by Rep. Robert
Molaro (D-Chicago), may be an uphill fight.
"You need to have lawmakers admit their previous efforts went too far,"
Young said. "And that does take legislative courage."
The coalition is composed of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Illinois; the DLA Piper law firm; Human Rights Watch; John Howard
Association; Juvenile Justice Initiative; the Cook County public
defender's office; Northwestern University School of Law's Children and
Family Justice Center; University of Chicago School of Law's Edwin F.
Mandel Legal Aid Clinic; and Voice For Illinois Children.
mjhiggins@tribune.com
5:25 AM
Powered by  | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|