Life Without Parole

Does Life Without Parole for juveniles violate the 8th amendment?

I think it really depends on the crime the child commits. There are cases in which the crimes the kids commit are not justified, of course, but it's just...Wrong to punish them so severely. Like minor crimes.

I suppose that when a child kills a person, then it would be right to punish them like that, but then again, there's the fact of what person he or she killed, under what conditions. For example, that girl that killed her pimp, she killed him because she felt like there was no other way out of her misery. She wanted to make him pay for everything he'd made her suffer, and thought that would be the most effective way. During her time in jail, though, she critically grew up as a person, learned that what she did was wrong, repented for it, and was willing to change her life and wanted to overcome the problems she went through.

She shouldn't spend the rest of her life in jail because she really has changed and become better. There are many of these cases that don't require minors spending all their lives in jail, but then again, it's quite debatable. I'd say I'm in a neutral place, defending both sides of the problem. Some children don't deserve to be put in jail for so long because their situation was complicated, and they've undergone a transformation that's hard to explain, but that has let them grow in a way that Life Without Parole doesn't fit anymore.

But then again, those are some cases, and in some others, kids cause them on purpose for no rational reason. Like that 15-year-old girl that got drunk and got in a cab with her friend, participating in the murder of the driver. All because her boyfriend dumped her. Or that 13-year-old boy that sexually assaulted an older woman.

People say that the punishment is severe because kids that age 'don't understand the severity of their actions.' They may be right, but to an extent. It doesn't take a lot of brain to understand that things like that are wrong, and they're as bad in children as they are in adults. If those are crimes, then they shouldn't need to understand them to a full extent, to experience them.

All they need to do is see that they're wrong and you might be punished because they're wrong for all ages, period. If they commited those crimes, then that means those kids simply ignored the basic 'position' of their deeds, (they ignored already knowing, at least a little, that what they were about to do was wrong) and still did them, regardless of the reason. If they were daring, or mature, or foolish (or whatever the term is) enough to commit the crimes, then they're just as daring, mature, foolish or whatever to face the consequences.