Should 13 and 14 year old killers be sentenced to life without parole?

I too am a Christian. I firmly believe that we all live in sin and God is well aware of this. Before we jump to a conclusion and say that these are just kids and that its not right, I would like you all to stop and think. A 14 year old just beat your mother, daughter or some other loved one. Then set their house on fire, while your loved on is still alive, and let them burn to death. Now this is not just some random story, but one of your children or loved ones that just dies a horrific and painful death at the hands of a 14 year old. Your loved one will never be back, will never get paroled from death, will never see another birthday or prom or smile again because of this 14 year olds action. As far life in prison, my thinking is this... If you are willing to commit cold blooded murder, to burn someone alive and you are only 14 years old, you are capable of doing it again. Where do we draw the line with innocent people being killed? One, two, ten before we finally lock them up for good? And your arguement of the parents? Yes, the parents are responsible for raising this child, but at 14, you know that murder isnt right. At 14, there should be no question in your mind that you shouldnt be lighting a structure on fire and leaving someone inside to burn to death!! The parents are to blame for the values they instill or dont instill in this person, but at 14, you know that murder is wrong. As far as self defense, that could well be, but that would be something to bring up in the trial. Lighting a fire to a structure after you beat someone inside and leave them to die, DOESNT sound like self defense. Self defense ends when you have the chance to walk away from the situation. Beating someone in a fight could very well qualify, burning the structure with that person inside after you have a chance to walk away does not. I do agree that life in prison is harsh, but this person has taken the life of someone else. NOT self defense, but chosen to KILL someone and take away everything for that person. That person is dead forever now. What about them?

A few years ago oversees, two underage boys took a child from a store. This was on video cameras. They walked this child for several miles. Crying, scared and looking for his mother. When they were finally finished having fun, they laid him across a RR track and let the train kill him. These two kids turned 18, were released from jail, given new identities and are now free. The child of course is still dead, the family will have to live with that forever. And because these two boys wanted to have fun, this child will never grow up, never know love, never have a date or goto the prom. Will never have his first kiss with a girl he likes. All thats gone and these two boys are free, AND have new identities. You can take steps to prevent it from happening again. But what message did we send to this child? Your killers are free to live their lives, we miss you, but they were kids when they killed you, so we are going to overlook it now... Read a story on the torture of Sylvia Likens from Indianapolis, In. If either of these two were related to you, do you still think you would say no to this question?

This should explain a lot:

At the time of birth, most of the brain's cells are developed and almost all of the neurons the brain will ever have are present. However, these cells and neurons are not fully connected within the brain and require additional time to form their connections.

Braing Weight
By age 2, the child's brain is about 80% of its adult size at approximately 1,120 grams in males. The brain reaches its maximum weight between age 19 and 21 and then begins to gradually lose small amounts of weight after age 50.

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Store.Chopra.comNeural Connections
By the time a child is 3, the brain has formed nearly 1,000 trillion neural connections, which is about twice as many as the adult brain has. Around the age of 11, the brain will begin to gradually rid itself of unnecessary and inefficient connections.

Brain Development
Although the brain reaches its full adult weight by the age of 21, it continues to develop for several years. In fact, a study done by the National Institutes of Health found that the region of brain that inhibits risky behavior does not fully form until age 25. This is the final stage of brain development


Read more: At What Age Is the Human Brain Fully Developed? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_637...

Unfortunatley our justice system is and continues to be BROKEN! In no case should a juvenile under the legal age of 18 be prosecuted as an adult. First you must understand that our system of just is constantly being eroded and mared by polititians who run for office using our justice sytem as there platform to get elected. Having said that lets break it down, first take the coment from the previous poster, Dake, "They made a choice to kill someone" do you really think looking back in your own life on those times when you were so upset with someone you just wanted to hurt them for something they had done to you or caused to happen to you. Obviously we all can remeber those times, but did we do anything to that person, did we physically harm them in some manor? Probably 99 percent of us will answer no, but how about that 1 percent who answered yes. To what degree did you go to for revenge or to get even. As adolescents making the right choices was key to the way we turn out as adults, some of us had lots of enfluences some good some bad some none at all. Science has proven that children under the age of 17 are not always capable of comprending the results of thier actions. I am not saying that these individuals go unpunished but I do thnk that we need to approach Juvenile justice in a whole different manor. We have seen this time and time again over the past decades. Obviously there is more than anger behind the motivation of a young boy to commit such a crime. We need that individual child someplace where he can pay for his crime and yet be help and maybe someday return to society a productive person.