Reply to Reported hazing incident involving Damascus High School JV Football team

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What are the real, practical reasons for charging them as adults? Other than, "it was a heinous crime," or "that's the procedure we follow for certain felonies," what outcomes are expected to be different if they are not charged in juvenile court?

Is it so they get due process that they would not get in juvenile court?

Is it strategic, so they can hang a life sentence over their heads to get a plea bargain for 20 years?

Is the idea that they are beyond redemption so they can be denied the education and treatment or mental health services they would get in a juvenile facility (even though they will probably eventually be released from prison)?

Or would they go to a juvenile facility anyway, and this ensures they will then be transferred to a regular facility when they age out to finish their sentences?

What is it about the juvenile justice system that can't handle children that commit serious crimes, even when we know that children are very capable of serious crimes and that some children are very disturbed people.

Just curious about the practical reasons. [/quote]

It is Maryland law that 1st degree rape requires filing a criminal case and charging defendants as adults. This was stated by the State's Attorney in the press conference yesterday. It is a statutory decision.[/quote]

Their hands might be tied in this case and they are required to try them as adults. (Assuming they meet the requirements of first degree.) But why is that the law? They didn't pull it out of a hat. There has got to be a practical reason.

What are the different possible outcomes and scenarios if they charge the children as adults as opposed to children as far as treatment, education, length of sentence, rehabilitation, etc?

Does the juvenile justice system not allow for them to be punished or transferred to a regular prison when they turn a certain age?

Do we decide that if a child does something bad enough, they are no longer children and are sent to an adult prison and all that entails? Maybe that's the answer.[/quote]

I am one who agrees with them being charged as adults.

Would charging them as juveniles mean that any convictions are sealed, so that if in a few years they want to, say, volunteer as a youth program coach they would be able to do so, even as convicted rapists, because the charges would not appear on their background search? Would charging them as juveniles give these violent rapists a clean slate in 2.5 years when they turn 18?[/quote]

The available consequences for youth charged in juvenile court varies a lot from state to state.  I am more familiar with Virginia, where for certain crimes a judge can impose a "blended sentence" which has a juvenile portion (while the offender is a juvenile) and an adult portion (when the offender turns 18 or 21).  In practice, this often means that the child convicted of a very serious offense receives a juvenile commitment (which is indeterminant in length but cannot exceed the 21st birthday) and a suspended adult sentence so that if they violate probation as an adult after being released from juvenile commitment, then they face adult prison time for the violation.  In Virginia, a child who is tried as an adult receives a modified sentencing process if it is their first time in adult court where the judge can impose a juvenile sentence, an adult sentence, or a blended sentence.  I don't think MD has blended sentences, so I think that if a case is kept in juvenile court then the maximum punishment would be incarceration until age 21 but if they go to adult court then the punishments imposed are adult punishments.  But I am not really sure.    [/quote]

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