Abolish juvenile life without parole

This is not a call for returning to the not-so-olden days, prior to the 1990s, when juvenile offenders were routinely freed shortly after reaching their majority (except if transferred to criminal court for prosecution). This is a proposal to return to the early 1990s days when juvenile murderers were punished appropriately (20 years for first degree murder and 15 years for second), but were not considered equally culpable as adults.

We now know much more about the emotional and neurological development of adolescents. And the research absolutely challenges the judgment of current Massachusetts law. The portion of the brain that controls our ability to think through consequences doesn’t fully develop until adulthood. Teenagers may look like adults, talk like adults, even kill like adults; but they typically think and reason like children. Although they understand that killing is wrong, juveniles do not quite grasp the enormity of the impact on themselves or others.

It is time, especially now that murder rates are low, for our lawmakers to rethink the overly rigid murder statute passed back in 1996 amidst a climate of fear and hysteria about young “superpredators.” Other states--even less-than-liberal Texas--have abolished juvenile life without parole. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is behind the times, and needs to move into the 21st century when it comes to punishing juvenile murderers.