Try children as adults

By Martha Martinez

‘Boy, 13, suspected in two Tulare killings’
‘Boy, 12, sent to group home’

These sad headlines appeared on the front pages of the Fresno Bee on Tuesday.

In a gang-related incident, a 13-year-old boy, who police suspect was involved in two murders, could be roaming the streets in less than 12 years under current laws, if he is found guilty.

The boy, charged with two counts of homicide, faces a maximum punishment of simply being placed in the California Youth Authority until he is 25. Adult murderers can get the death penalty on similar charges.

A crime is a crime. Murdering someone is still a crime, no matter what the age, and a child murder suspect should face an adult trial.

An adult sentence would eliminate the potential for that 13-year-old boy to murder or attempt to murder again.

The 12-year-old boy from the second story got off a little easier. His sentence, for molesting a 7-year-old girl, is to spend six months in a group home for sex offenders.

In addition, he must also serve a month of house arrest and complete 48 hours of community service.

That should teach him a lesson.

Yet, it still doesn’t change the fact that society has another child molester on the loose.

I hate to say it, because yes, even at 12 years old, he too is a child molester.

And he should serve a sentence equal to any other child molester under the same circumstances.

The girl’s mother wanted the boy to serve time in a juvenile detention center.

Why not?

Why not treat the case as an adult case?

Only then, while inside a detention center or prison, will he be unable to harm another child’s body. Maybe there, he could learn a lesson.

The fact that these two offenders are still children is sad. It hurts me to have to read about young offenders in the paper. They are young, but they are still criminals—criminals, who, in both cases, should have been tried as adults.

They committed a crime and they should face the repercussions for their actions.

But maybe, just maybe, if the punishments were a little harsher, other potential child offenders would learn a lesson and control their behavior before someone else had to suffer.