American injustice: Imprisoning children for life

Lawyers for an 11 year old child in Pennsylvania who allegedly shot and killed his father’s pregnant fiancée worked hard to convince an appeals court not to hold him as an adult to prevent life imprisonment.

America’s unsympathetic juvenile justice system has many questioning the morals of the court. In America a policy known as “life means life” allows children under the age of 18 to be tried as adults for certain crimes and can lead to life imprisonment without any chance of parole.

Like Somalia, the US has continually refused to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which would prohibit the American judicial system for holding children for live without the possibility of parole.

In the US state of Pennsylvania, where the case is being heard, all juvenile offenders are automatically treated as adults unless the judge specifically rules otherwise.

Jordan Brown, the child in question, is accused of casually shooting and killing his father’s pregnant fiancée with a hunting rifle, and then going about his school day as normal. Prosecution argued evidence indicated the act was premeditated.

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