Should Juvenilles Be Tried as Adults for Capital offenses

On May 9th, 2001 Lionel Tate, at the age of fourteen was sentenced to life in prison from a Florida judge. He was charged with the beating that resulted in death of a six-year-old neighbor girl, Tiffany Eunick (Where It All Began: 14-year-old Gets Life 1). Lionel claimed he was performing professional wrestling moves on Tiffany when she stopped breathing (Where It All Began: 14-year-old Gets Life 2). Lionel, along with many others, do not dispute the fact that his actions were the cause of Tiffany's death. The disagreement arises when one looks at the sentence Lionel was given. Did Lionel realize that his actions would result in the death of Tiffany Eunick? Should Lionel or any other juvenile be held responsible in the same manner as an adult for capital crimes? Recent studies show that juvenile brains are not fully developed making them incapable of fully understanding the transgressions of there actions and therefore should not be tried in adult courts.

To understand this situation in it's entirety, one must first know Lionel Tate's full story. On July 28, 1999 Kathleen Grossett-Tate, a highway patrol trooper for the state of Florida, brought Tiffany Eunick to her home to watch over her. This was not unusual being that Kathleen was a good friend of Tiffany's mother. Tiffany had been over to this residence a considerable amount of times before and played with Lionel without having any problems. After Kathleen finished preparing dinner for the two, she let them watch television. While they watched the television she went upstairs. Around the time of 10 P.M. the children's playing grew too loud for the Kathleen to ignore. The initial annoyance the two caused was swiftly replaced by terror 40 minutes later when Lionel informed Kathleen that Tiffany was not breathing. "Tate claimed that he put Eunick in a headlock and banged her head on a black lacquer table..." (Where It All Began: 14-year-old Gets Life 2). The grand jury that was investigating Lionel's case started to question this after new information was released. The medical examiner released a report that said there were extensive internal injuries that could not have been visible to investigators, including a detached liver. This report indicated that Lionel's actions must have been more violent and brutal. His case acquired nationwide attention being that he was twelve years old and being tried as an adult for murder (Where It All Began: 14-year-old Gets Life 2).

At the age of fourteen, Lionel was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole (Where It All Began: 14-year-old Gets Life 2). Cases like Lionel's are not a new or unusual situation. Juveniles are tried and convicted as adults for various crimes each and every year. In Lionel's home state juveniles being tried in adult courts have been rising significantly. In the years of 1975 and 1976, 904 juveniles were tried in adult courts. 2,883 juveniles in tried adult courts and 5,877 in the years of 1981 to 1982 and 1989 to 1990 followed this, respectively (Coalition for Juvenile Justice 183). Virginia also has some startling statistics in regards to juveniles being tried as adults. During the years of 1988 to 1990, 63 percent of juveniles that were tried in adult courts were sentenced to prison. Needless to say, the juveniles that were sentenced to prison received more severe punishment then their counterparts who were tried in juvenile courts (Coalition for Juvenile Justice 182). The average sentencing for juveniles in adult courts was also considerably different then juveniles who were tried in juvenile courts. Juveniles in adult courts received an average of 8.1 years compared to 7.6 months for individuals tried in juvenile courts. A study conducted in Utah followed fifty-three juveniles that were transferred to adult courts for five years. Forty-nine of these individuals were brought to court; forty of which plea-bargained and nine were sentenced by the court. Sixteen of these were given no prison time and twenty-eight received less then two years in prison. Five juveniles received sentencing that kept them in prison past their twenty-first birthday (Coalition for Juvenile Justice 184). In the United States, fourteen juveniles are sitting on death row while nine have already been executed since 1979 (Coalition for Juvenile Justice 185). The environment for juveniles in prison is also quite troublesome. On average, juveniles serving time in prison, compared to those in juvenile facilities, are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted and also two times more likely to beaten by the staff. The adult facilities also offer considerably less counseling programs. Less effort is put forth to help the individuals with family relations and social skills, so in turn very little, if any progress is made (Coalition for Juvenile Justice 184). After juveniles are released from prison they are more likely to commit more serious crimes and much sooner compared to individuals released from juvenile facilities (Coalition for Juvenile Justice 185).

"[The brain is] the most complex three pound mass in the known universe-and for good reason-it has literally billions of connections among it's parts" (Ortiz 93). Juvenile brain development is a key factor in understanding the crimes they commit. Juveniles do not have the ability to understand their actions completely and because of this they cannot be held responsible for their actions in the same way adults are. Robert Gur from the University of Pennsylvania reports that the frontal lobe of the human brain only begins to mature on average at the age of seventeen (as quoted in Beckman 2). The frontal lobe also happens to be the largest part of the brain (Ortiz 93). The prefrontal cortex, which is the anterior part of the frontal lobes, controls understanding consequences, impulse control, abstract thinking, long range planning, and mental flexibility (Ortiz 93-94). Researchers at UCLA, Harvard Medical School, and the National Institute of Health have been working together to understand brain development. Their research has shown that at a young age the brain overproduces gray matter, which is the overall thinking part of the brain. After this comes the pruning process in which gray matter is removed. Paul Thompson from UCLA describes this time as a "massive loss of brain tissue" (as quoted in Ortiz 94). The average amount of tissue lost per year is one to two percent (Ortiz 94). While this pruning process is taking place the myelination is occurring simultaneously. Myelination is when white matter, what insulates the brain, makes brain process more efficient. This process is also thought to shape brains neural connections for adulthood (Ortiz 95). With age, the brain becomes denser and more organized which makes it better at processing and understanding information. Changes in the brain also can