Duplicitous Justice--Sending Kids to Prison for Life While Blaming the Parents

 In a recent edition of the Criminal Defense Newsletter, an article noted, "No country other than the United States permits sentencing children to life [in prison] without parole, and Michigan leads the nation in people serving this sentence" (Feb. 2024, Vol. 47, Issue 5). 

This statistic deeply saddens me. Some might justify the practice of sending children to prison for the rest of their lives by noting that some other countries would probably execute these children. That's not a comfort though. Life in prison IS an execution, but it's a slow, cruel one. 

Michigan prides itself for being progressive, but its criminal justice system is one of the toughest, most archaic in the nation. When the United States Supreme Court ruled that former juveniles serving life in prison must be resentenced (and their youthfulness considered as a factor), Michigan dragged its feet. Some of these prisoners have STILL not been resentenced, more than a decade after the Supreme Court's ruling!

Recently, Oxford High School shooter, Ethan Crumbley, was tried as an adult and sentenced to four life sentences. He was only the most recent high profile juvenile sentenced to life in prison in Michigan. The criminal justice system tried Ethan as an adult and gave him an adult sentence. But, then the same "justice" system held the child Ethan's parents accountable and found them guilty of manslaughter. 

On one hand, Ethan was treated as a competent adult, but then when it came time to prosecute his parents, he was a mentally ill child who the parents should have had more control over. I don't see how the "justice" system can have it both ways. Mark my words. Either Ethan or his parents will get back on appeal over this duplicity. 

If Ethan was a competent adult who is responsible for his actions, than his parents cannot be held culpable for his actions. But if he was a mentally ill, immature and irresponsible child, then he should not have been tried as an adult. His parents, then, should have held some culpability. 

Let me be clear. What Ethan did is horrific and tragic. Four families' lives were changed that day, and many more have suffered the after effects of his actions. If Ethan was not mentally ill, he should pay for his crimes. But is it justice to send him--a child himself--to prison for the rest of his life? Is he incapable of rehabilitation? Perhaps that justice system knows what every prisoner already knows--the prison system does not rehabilitate people. 

And if we as a society want to start holding parents responsible for the behavior of their children, as the court did with Ethan's parents, then the parents' irresponsibility ought to be a significant mitigating factor in the child's sentence. 

I doubt Michigan will lead the way in this common sense approach to justice. It's already too busy leading the way in sentencing more children to life in prison than any other state, and nation, on earth.