John J. DiIulio Jr.

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måndag, juli 24, 2023

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Fourteen years old at the time, Osborne killed his father, then opened fire at Townsville Elementary School, killing a 6-year-old child and injuring others.

Key Points:

Fourteen years old at the time, Osborne killed his father, then opened fire at Townsville Elementary School, killing a 6-year-old child and injuring others.
He was sentenced to life without parole, but his attorneys have asked that a judge “give Jesse some hope” of leaving prison decades down the line.
The judge ordered the defense to submit a detailed report by late June about abuse Osborne suffered as a child and his potential for rehabilitation.
He said the prosecution would have 10 days to respond, though no decision has been announced as of mid-July.

The ‘superpredator’ era

America’s history of marginalizing and criminalizing Black citizens primed the media and the public to accept his theory, as did several high-profile cases.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, well before DiIulio’s article, states had already been establishing harsher sentencing laws, even for minors.
Many laws from the “superpredator” era, however, are still on the books.
The U.S. is still the only nation that sentences children to life without the possibility of parole.

Shifts at the Supreme Court

Starting in the 2000s, the U.S. Supreme Court began to acknowledge that child offenders are different from adults.
In 2005, the court banned the death penalty for people under 18, and in 2010 outlawed life sentences for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide offenses.
In each of these decisions, the Supreme Court recognized that a lack of brain development makes adolescents, even those who commit serious and violent offenses, less culpable and more capable of change than adults.

State-by-state change

This change in attitudes has had clear impact on state laws.
Today, a majority of states have now banned or have no one serving JLWOP.
More than 500 people who received their sentences before these SCOTUS cases are still serving life without parole for crimes they committed as children.

The path ahead

Those I assist as a defense attorney often come from the same environments and tragic backgrounds as the victims I served as a prosecutor.
The primary focus of the juvenile court has always been rehabilitation rather than punishment.