My problem is the age range. The gap between 14 and 18 is simply huge. I agree that mandatory life sentences are not appropriate for 14 year olds, but cannot extend that to someone on the cusp of 18.
________________________________________
Sociopathic killers are ‘just getting warmed up’ for a lifetime of destroying the lives of others for pleasure if jailed for murder in their youth. The problem for me is that both ‘normal’ kids and sociopaths are lumped in together and banning life in prison means that jail hardened sociopaths ‘get’ to revenge themselves on society when they get out if life sentences are banned.
What we escape here in the US is that in Africa, there are seasoned killers at age 12-14. We are not far from that now, in the inner cities.
They should never get out of prison. Whether society chooses to end their young lives I will defer to the States...
If someone comes to the US and was a Colonel or General in Africa, it was because they killed many people. Right or wrong, they were stone killers.