And so, do I. The prospective maximum sentence for a juvenile criminal is much lesser than the sentence for an adult. And courts are far more lenient with sentences for juveniles.
The objective is to get the assailant to plead to a misdemeanor of some kind and be released for time served. Quite frankly, it is because the assailant is Black, and her victim is White.
Had the races been reversed, the attacker would have certainly been charged as an adult with attempted homicide plus a few "hate crime" offenses piled on. And she would be rightly convicted too.
The injuries were inflicted in a sustained and deliberate manner resulting in permanent disability to the victim. That is a factor that the court should be considering. They are not doing that.
What we are hearing from the media is an orchestrated campaign of excuses for violent behavior by a member of a protected class.
I read that Missouri has no maximum sentence for a juvenile. A juvenile could be sentenced to life without parole. I wouldn't expect that outcome in this case, but she should be sentenced to time in a detention center.
If she were tried as an adult, a jury might sympathize with her, and she could be found not guilty and released, or guilty of a lesser offense.
In juvenile court, there is no jury. A judge decides. Some reports say that juvenile offenders receive longer sentences in juvenile court than adults receive for the same crimes.
We'll have to wait to see what happens in this case.
Missouri has guidelines to determine whether a juvenile offender should be tried as an adult, and she passed those guidelines because her record is clear. Do I believe she has never been in a fight before? No, I suspect she's never been caught.
You and I agree that she should serve time. We disagree on whether it matters if she's charged as an adult or a juvenile. We'll have to agree to disagree.
For the record, if Kaylee had been the one to lose control and bash Maurcine's head into the concrete in this fight, my position would be the same if she were charged as a juvenile, even though she's a year older and her school record is not clean.