THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602030024
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
If the compromise package of juvenile-justice reforms passes the General Assembly without change, it will better equip Virginia to guide and treat young people charged with crimes.
For the legislature's Commission on Youth, which Del. Jerrauld C. Jones of Norfolk chairs, steering troubled and troublemaking youngsters toward productive lives has been a priority. It's key to any intelligent plan to reduce teenage crime.
But the haunting question is: To win a few concessions from the hard-line Governor's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform, did Mr. Jones and fellow commission members agree to too much?
We think they did.
The compromise provides, for example, that juveniles 14 and older who are charged with crimes such as murder and rape will, without exception, be tried as adults in Circuit Court. This denies juvenile-court judges discretion in the area of criminal justice that most demands judicial discretion.
Automatically treating juveniles as adults, said Julie McConnell of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, ``ignores differences in culpability and personal histories of juveniles charged with the same offense.''
Consider this example, which one speaker gave during a public hearing: In one case, a 14-year-old kills an abusive parent; in the other, a 14-year-old fatally shoots a convenience-store clerk during a robbery. The law, as now proposed, would require that both be tried as adults for murder.
And why strip the juvenile-court judge of any say when current law already enables a prosecutor to appeal to Circuit Court, where the juvenile-court judge is frequently overruled.
Another Allen administration proposal accepted by the Jones panel would have perhaps more actual impact. Juveniles charged with other felonies - abduction, robbery, carjacking, etc. - could be tried in either juvenile or Circuit Court, but the prosecutor would have sole responsibility for making the choice. This risks such decisions being made politically when, again, the choice would be best left to the juvenile-court judge.
The compromise also would expand the death penalty to include those as young as 15. Does Virginia really want to execute 15-year-olds?
We don't suggest that juveniles, even those only 14, who commit serious crimes should escape appropriate punishment. But as the above-described scenario from the legislative hearing illustrates, widely differing circumstances call for broad judicial discretion.
Lawmakers ought to resist tough-sounding crime measures that, at best, will have little effect on youth lawlessness and, at worst, could prove counterproductive for both Virginia's troubled youths and those who fear them. by CNB