Two thoughts:
1. How do you weigh society’s right to be protected from convicted murderers against those convicts’ right to a second chance?
2. Our society asks victims’ families to forswear vengeance; what does the justice system owe those families in return?
My feeling is that manslaughter laws provide juries an opportunity to consider the (possibly) diminished capacity of a minor. Perhaps juries should receive special instructions to this effect when a minor is charged with murder. But where the jury nonetheless convicts a young person of murder, I think life without parole is the appropriate sentence. The clemency process (i.e., pardon or commutation) is always available for cases that may be an exception to the rule.

We are convinced that some people are essentially soulless and should be locked up forever. I recall Bob Dole making a statement about 20 years ago about – these children who have no soul. If we are convinced of such a thing – certainly such belief is the antithesis to Christian belief – then we must assume there can be no redemption for some and that those people should be kept in jail forever. As a pragmatic thing – that’s probably a good idea, but as one who believes in the power of Christ – it is heresy.
I often think that we enjoy having “monsters” because monsters keep us from looking within.

Part of the reason to keep people locked up is that the prison system is so bad, and the damage done to people in prison for a long time is so severe that people may actually be more dangerous after prison than before. Doesn’t excuse the problem. But it is a reality of prison.

Thinker,
I fully agree with your analysis of comments by Bob Dole, and others who would demonize other people– even murderers– as “monsters.” Our shared Christian faith insists that we see such people as fellow members of the Body of Christ. Indeed, my faith is the primary reason I oppose capital punishment.
That said, how do you respond to my two questions? We complain so often about the Religious Right’s efforts to impose their brand of Christianity on us; if we allow our beliefs about redemption to pervade our criminal justice system, are we doing the same thing to murder victims’ families, who often will not share those views?
As a crime, murder is unique. Aside from treason, it is the most serious crime that our secular laws recognize. As a spiritual matter, unlike other crimes, reconciliation is not possible (because true reconciliation cannot occur without the victim). Therefore, I have come to believe that life without parole is appropriate in all cases of murder, because the rights of society (to safety) and the victim’s family (to justice) outweigh the offender’s right to a second chance.
Keep in mind that not all killing is murder– we are only talking about people who have killed another human being with malice aforethought. Perhaps there are instances where such people ought to be set free, but I am convinced that such cases are exceedingly rare, regardless of the offender’s age.
Peace.

Well, the youth murder trend isn’t just in America, or recent, as anyone who has seen the first major film of now-Hollywood megastars Kate Winslet and Peter Jackson, Heavenly Creatures, would know.
As frightening as the movie was (and I’ll post a Wiki link to the true story at the end), the most frightening thing was at the end — when it said in the closing credits that the two girls who committed murder were released after five years, on the sole condition they never have contact again. (And that the Kate Winslet character went on, under a nom de plume, to become a best-selling author in real life.)
I believe in second chances — no, I don’t think Ashley Jones should be in jail until she’s 90, either. But that postscript to Heavenly Creatures left me dumbstruck and horrified as I left the theater. Treating cold-blooded murderers strictly as juveniles is not the answer, either.
And there seems to be no mechanism in the U.S.’ current justice system structure for crimes that fall between adults and children — that resulted in adult violence and horror, but clearly stemmed from the lack of maturity and understanding of a juvenile.
I wish I knew what the answer was. I do know what the answer isn’t, though — 185 to 1. We should listen to the world — and maybe, given that infamous New Zealand case of the ’50s, they should listen to us a bit as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker-Hulme_murder

I think of Sister Helen Prejean who works with both the killers and the victims” families. She is a dramatic woman who says that our Christian responsibility is not either/ or. It is always a both. She puts both arms out and says that we must be Christ in this as in with all things and that means hanging on a cross. When she does this – you see the cross. If we are purely victim advocates we are not about Christ. If we are purely about the murderer – we are not about Christ. It is in holding them together that we understand the cross. And if we do that – we will be despised by some. Nobody said it would be easy.
We tend to want order in all things – we want to know who is outside the pale – who is to be invisible. And we want to know who is God’s beloved.
Richard Shindell wrote a song – Traffic – that captures the paradox of the Gospel on this issue.
We want an either /or kind of world – one in which we have eaten from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. The thing that happens after that – the first crime – is murder of a brother and the statement “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Jesus lets us know that indeed, we are.

Larry,
the author, Anne Perry, is the woman who, at the age of 14, committed the murder you refer to. When asked about it – she’s in her 70′s – she remembers a moment that was brutal and short. She expresses regret and when you read her novels, you see someone trying to work out the why. It was almost 60 years ago – in Australia. Both women have gone on to live quiet and lonely lives. Is it our job to invoke vengeance? Or justice? I have known several people who spent much of their lives in prison for murder as young men. One was released and became a rather famous journalist. He died within a few years – never having worked out his demons. Another was released from prison after being falsely accused. He’s in his 40′s, spent 26 years on death row and was within weeks of being executed. It was known that he did not do it and had been falsely accused, but the prosecutor argued that he had no grounds for appeal. Finally, the supreme court justice asked the question so few will ask. ‘So, you are willing to execute an innocent man, because you can?’ Our prison system is a sacrificial machine. We are willing to sacrifice 2.3% of our citizens to our own vengeance.
On the other hand – there are those who are so broken – they can never be released for our safety. I simply think we like vengeance better than we like justice. Don’t know what the solution is, but know for sure that we are going the wrong direction.

The facility with which we are now discounting people in this country worries me for our future. Undocumented immigrants, foreign workers terrorists, people who might be terrorists, criminals, pedophiles, celebrities, homosexuals, liberals, conservatives, etc. etc. etc. This is how great societies commit suicide.
What astounds me is that people don’t seem to understand how valueless we become when we won’t value others.

Thinker:
I’m not saying that Anne Perry needs to pay a further debt to society. It’s far too late for the various criminal justice systems of the British Commonwealth to enforce that, anyway.
I’m just saying that Heavenly Creatures was an intensely disturbing movie — because the real-life basis for it was also intensely disturbing.