The link above is to a news article from January 22, 2014 in
Florida.
Found this article and thought it was relevant to our discussion/debate we had in class last week! Just wanted to share.
Juvenile Justice Debate
Continues As Teen Serves 70 Year Sentence
The article starts out by asking the question, “is a 70 year
sentence without parole for a 14-year-old effectively the same as
life in prison?” The
juvenile, Gridine was 14 in 2009, when he and another boy attempted to
rob a man. He fired a shotgun, hitting the man’s head and shoulder. The
victim was not seriously wounded. Gridine was sentenced to 70 years, without
parole, after being tried as an adult and pleading guilty to attempted murder
and robbery.
After reading the article and hearing victims and/or their
families don’t necessarily care what age the offender is…that bothers me. In one part of the article it says, “As one
First Coast Connect listener put it on Twitter, “If you commit an adult crime,
you deserve an adult punishment.”
There are laws that very state to state around the age of
consent or the age of being tried as an adult. I am curious what your opinion
on this “child” being sentenced to 70 years.
Florida has been in the spot light more since the Zimmerman
trial.
Do you think the state needs to reevaluate sentencing for
this case or other cases or do you feel that other states need to be more
strict?
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