Trying minors as adults is a major mistake

John Muhammed is scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison today. His three-week rampage with a sniper's rifle in October 2002 - causing the death of innocent victims in mall parking lots and gas stations in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia - fueled post-9/11 apocalyptic fears. And it was ultimately the D.C. sniper's killing of Dean Harold Meyers, a gas station attendant, under post-9/11 laws against domestic terrorism that is sending him to the death chamber.

But Muhammed's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, the 17-year-old who may have also assisted in shooting people from Arizona to Louisiana, was spared death and is confined to a prison cell for the rest of his life because he was a minor at the time of the crime. Before going to prison, Malvo spoke of his deep need for a father figure, and of his painful alienation as a young person among his peers. He was an outcast. He was a disturbingly troubled young man who was plunged into violence by an adult. In the end, Malvo had a thin victory of sorts in court because the jury in his case deliberated for 8 hours before they settled on life (in prison) over death.

According to the American Bar Association, of the 38 states that permit the death penalty, only 22 permit the execution of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. Moreover, at the time of Malvo's trial, the Supreme Court was just one vote shy of considering whether the execution of 16 and 17-year-olds was considered cruel and unusual punishment.

The Supreme Court is now again poised to weigh the law on minors who commit crimes. Malvo did in fact kill innocent people. However the cases before the Supreme Court next week - Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida - center on putting minors as young as 13 years old in jail for life for crimes that don't involve murder.

First, juveniles should not be tried and treated as adults in the criminal justice system, no matter how "adult-like" the crime. Youth is just that - youth. To hold minors to the same standards for adult behavior is reckless, at best. Further, sentencing them to life in prison for non-homicide offenses is a blatant violation of international human rights, children's rights and against the law. Not only is it "cruel and unusual punishment" under the 8th amendment, sentencing youth offenders to life in prison will disproportionately affect black and Latino youth, who are more often than whites placed in adult courts for criminal offenses.

Given the ever-growing cradle to prison pipeline for our youth of color, we need to be vigilant that this does not become a reality. Malvo's fate was sealed when he helped take the lives of others, but not every kid should share his fate. We need to speak out to our leaders and lawmakers to become vocal on this blatant violation of the law and fairness. How many more generations will be lost to prisons before we wake up to injustice?

Trying minor as adults is a major mistake