40 years ago, the US started sending more and more kids to prison without hope of release, but today, it's far more rare – what happened?
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Monday, July 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.