justice system must consider the victim while also applying the law fairly to the person accused or convicted.
That balance becomes especially difficult when the defendant was also a child.
Child Care
What a Long Sentence Really Means
When people read “50 years” or “58 years,” it can be difficult to visualize what that actually represents.
For a teenager, decades are almost impossible to comprehend.
Fifty years is longer than many people’s entire working lives.
It can encompass multiple generations.
Psychology
A person sentenced at 14 could potentially remain incarcerated through much of adulthood and into old age.
That doesn’t mean a long sentence is automatically unjustified.
The severity of the offense matters.
The victim matters.
Crime & Justice
Public safety matters.
But the offender’s age matters too.
A sentence imposed on a child can have consequences that are fundamentally
