A Mississippi teenager arranged for a Lyft ride, then pulled a gun and kidnapped the driver, took her to a woods, and ordered her to get on her knees.
“He wanted my PIN number to my phone, my debit cards and wanted to know how much money I had in the bank, and wanted to know what was in my house.” she said later, adding, “I gave him whatever he wanted because I was just trying to stay alive.”
Then he shot her SEVEN times. She crawled out of the woods to a nearby home. Somehow, miraculously, she survived. (Read story here.)
A 17-year-old suspect has been arrested, who police say confessed.
The local police chief says he has “a criminal history of robberies of this sort. ‘It is my understanding through our interview with this individual, this is not the first time this has occurred,’ the chief said.” (Read story here.)
At this point there’s nothing on the internet to explain what might have turned the suspect into such a monster at so young an age. I suppose we’ll find out when the handwringing begins.
The case isn’t unique. Many teenagers commit vicious, violent crimes. For example, there’s the notorious “Slender Man” case from Wisconsin (here), involving 12-year-olds repeatedly stabbing a friend; and a recent case from Louisiana in which a fight led to four girls ages 12 to 14 stabbing a 15-year-old girl to death (story here).
It’s not a new trend. In 1993, a 17-year-old named Christopher Simmons and a younger friend broke into a woman’s home, tied her up, drove her to a park, and threw her off a bridge. She drowned. That jury sentenced Simmons to death; but in the landmark case of Roper v. Simmons, decided in 2005, the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juvenile criminals (i.e., crimes committed before age 18).
In explaining the ruling, the Court “cited a body of sociological and scientific research that found that juveniles have a lack of maturity and sense of responsibility compared to adults. Adolescents were found to be over-represented statistically in virtually every category of reckless behavior. The Court noted that in recognition of the comparative immaturity and irresponsibility of juveniles, almost every state prohibited those under age 18 from voting, serving on juries, or marrying without parental consent. The studies also found that juveniles are more vulnerable to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. They have less control, or experience with control, over their own environment.” (Details here.)
But that still leaves unanswered the question, if society can’t get rid of teenage monsters by executing them, what should it do with them?
An obvious idea is to simply lock them up and throw the key away. But that won’t fly, either. In Miller v. Alabama, a 2012 decision involving a 14-year-old boy, the Court ruled that underage killers can’t be sentenced to life without parole, either. (Details here.) That led to Washington’s Supreme Court throwing out the 51-year sentence handed to a 16-year-old gang member who killed a girl in a drive-by shooting. Such a sentence, that court reasoned, assumes juvenile offenders are “irredeemable.” (Details here.)
The reasoning behind all these court decisions is that juveniles are less than fully formed, are redeemable, and even though their victims are gone for good their lives can be retrieved. So what you do is confine them for a few years, try to teach them right from wrong, hope it takes, and dump them back into society.
That isn’t necessarily what society should do with teenage monsters, but it’s what our society does do with them, the courts having left it with no other choice. Which makes us a more civilized society, right?
But the day they turn 18, pow! Everything changes. Now they’re responsible for their actions. Now they can be held to adult standards of conduct, and subjected to adult punishments — life without parole, or execution in some states. One calendar day makes all the difference.
Which means 17-year-old monsters had better get in their licks at us before that magic day when they turn 18, if they know what’s good for them.