Juveniles Who Commit Violent
Crimes Should be Tried as Adults
By: Brittany Easter
If a juvenile commits a capital crime,
they should be tried as adults.
• All but 5 States try children of any age charged with murder to
be tried as adults.
• Fundamental Question: “Are children capable of understanding
the consequences of their actions?”
Capital Punishment
• U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional to anyone who hasn’t
celebrated their 16th birthday
• Some states consider 16- and 17- year olds for death penalty
Do Americans Favor the Death Penalty
for Juveniles?
Poll on Death Penalty
Crime
Age
• Recent polls illustrate that
55% of Americans believe the
crime, not the perp’s age,
should be the determining
factor in sentencing.
Juveniles who experience abuse as children
are more likely to turn to violent acts during
the adolescent and adult years.
Facts on Children and Domestic Violence
• More than 3 women/day are
murdered by their abusive
spouses in the U.S.
• 2-million injuries/year to
women
• Many of the women who are
hurt are mothers who go to
extreme measures
attempting to protect their
children from their spouses.
• Growing up in a violent home may be a traumatic experience
that can affect every aspect of a child’s life, growth, and
development.
Domestic Violence Affects Children
•Children of mothers who experience
prenatal physical domestic violence are
at an increased risk of exhibiting
aggressive, anxious, depressed, or
hyperactive behavior.
Domestic Violence Affects Children Cont’d
• Exposed females
• Parents’ domestic violence
• Dating issues
Affects Cont’d…
• Children who experience childhood trauma are at a greater risk of
health problems including:
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Tobacco use
Substance abuse
Obesity
Cancer
Heart disease
Depression
Higher risk of unintended pregnancy
•“Physical abuse during childhood
increases risk of future victimizing
among women and the future
perpetration of abuse by men more than
two-fold (“Facts on Children and
Domestic Violence”).”
There have been cases where children were abused
and went and committed sadistic crimes just for
fun.
• Jesse Pomeroy
• Mary Flora Bell and Nora Bell
• Willie Bosket
• Cindy Collier
• Edmund Kemper
• Joshua Phillips
There have also been cases
where juveniles have committed
violent crimes and tried to say
that the rulings violated the U.S.
Constitution Amendments.
U.S. SUPREME COURT
CASES INVOLVING
JUVENILE SENTENCING
•Miller v. Alabama
•Jackson v. Hobbs
•Roper v. Simmons
•Graham v. Florida
*These case rulings and sentencing
were said to have violated a
juvenile’s Eighth Amendment
rights.
Information on Some of Those Cases:
Miller v. Alabama
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Name: Evan Miller
Age at Time of Crime: 14
Place: Alabama
Background: Evan Miller and friend Cody Smith went to a neighbor’s
house in search of drugs and instead found baseball cards and $300.
They beat the neighbor and left him laying unconscious as they set
the house on fire.
• Miller was sentenced to life without parole.
• He tried to say that life without parole violated his Eighth
Amendment rights.
• The U.S. Supreme Court Justices ruled that it did not violate that
right.
Jackson v. Hobbs
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Name: Kuntrell Jackson
Age at Time of Crime: 14
Place: Arkansas
Background: Kuntrell Jackson was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole for felony-murder when his cousin killed a shop attendant during a robbery.
• Arkansas law made a life-without-parole sentence mandatory, so neither Jackson’s age nor
the fact that he was not the triggerman entered into the sentencing consideration.
• After the Arkansas Supreme Court declared Jackson’s conviction, a state court denied
Jackson’s petition for habeas corpus in which he argued that a life-without-parole sentence
on a fourteen-year-old constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth
Amendment.
• Respondent, Arkansas Department of Corrections Director Ray Hobbs, asserts that such a
sentence is constitutionally permissible and in line with national standards.
Graham v. Florida
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Name: Terrance Jamar Graham
Age at Time of the Crime: 16
Place: Florida
Background: Terrance Jamar Graham, along with two accomplices, attempted to rob a barbecue
restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida in July 2003.
Graham was arrested for the robbery attempt and was charged as an adult for armed burglary with
assault and battery, as well as attempted armed robbery, with the first charge being a first degree
felony that is punishable by life.
He pled guilty and his plea was accepted.
Six months later, on December 2, 2003, Graham was arrested again for home invasion robbery.
Graham denied involvement, but he acknowledged that he was in violation of his plea agreement.
In 2006, the presiding judge sentenced Graham to life in prison, and because Florida abolished
parole, it became a sentence without parole.
Roper v. Simmons
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Name: Christopher Simmons
Age at Time of Crime: 17 (1993)
Place: Missouri
Background: Simmons had devised a plan to kill neighbor Shirley Crook. The original plan was to include
two of Simmons’s younger friends: Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer. The plan was to commit murder
by aggravated burglary, tying up the victim, and tossing her off a bridge. Tessmer dropped out of the
plot before the murder took place. Simmons and Benjamin broke into Mrs. Crook's home, hog-tied and
covered her eyes. They drove her to a state park and threw her off a bridge.
Simmons had confessed to the crime and even performed a videotaped reenactment at the crime
scene.
There was testimony from Tessmer against him that showed premeditation.
The jury returned a guilty verdict.
The jury recommended a death sentence, which the trial court imposed.
The case worked its way up the court system, with the courts continuing to uphold the death sentence.
After the case having been tried through the Supreme Court, Simmons was sentenced to life without
parole.
Questions or Comments?