Life without Parole?

Should juveniles be sentenced to life without parole when they commit murder? This is the question at hand. To me, there is too much grey area for a yes or no answer to this question. There are too many factors that influence my decision. I DO feel that people should be punished for their crimes. I DO feel that victims’ families should be able to have closure and some sort of peace in their lives about their loved ones being murdered. But, on the other hand, I also feel that people can be rehabilitated, especially juveniles. Juveniles are influenced by their environment and by the people that they surround themselves with. When I was a juvenile, if one of my friends jumped off of the bridge into the lake, guess what, I was going to do the same thing. That’s just the way it is. So, for example, if someone grows up poor, get teased because of their clothing, and is lacking a family life, then they find their own family, which in Adolfo Davis' case happened to be a gang. He likely got caught up doing as any other juvenile would do...being influenced by the people that he surrounds himself with. But in his case there were 2 people murdered and he was tried as an adult and sentenced to life without parole. But he was only 14 years old, and he was tried as an adult…but did he have the same sense of “right and wrong” that an adult would have? Maybe, maybe not. Did he have a mental illness?

According to Sarah Hammond, “Many of the two million children and adolescents arrested each year in the United States have a mental health disorder. As many as 70 percent of youth in the system are affected with a mental disorder, and one in five suffer from a mental illness so severe as to impair their ability to function as a young person and grow into a responsible adult”(Hammond, 2007). If Adolfo Davis’ had a mental illness that was addressed in his childhood maybe his part in the crime would have never happened. As stated above, there are many juveniles in the prison systems that have a mental illness that are not getting the treatment that they need. For further information, click here

In conclusion, for me it has to be on a case by case basis. I would be happy for Adolfo Davis’ if he got a second chance but I would be sad for the victims’ families who were told that he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Now, they would have to deal with the fact that a person who was involved in the murder of their family member was a free man.