Anyone following the local news lately has probably noticed a rash of youths committing murder.
Although it is not anyone’s right to take the life of another, these children are just children and no matter how horrific their crimes are, they should not be faced with the death penalty.
One of the most horrific crimes in this county recently was the case of 17-year-old Ruben Cruz and his half sister, 12-year-old Joanna Velazquez. They allegedly beat and strangled their mother, 43-year-old Francisca Comparan.
They reportedly beat her with a frying pan and then strangled her with an extension cord, because Comparan would not let her children go out to a party. Cruz went as far as to start digging a grave for his mother’s body in the back yard while she was put in a storage room.
Doing something as horrible as this to a parent has to be either because of mental incapacity or a lack of environmental stability.
These kids may have known what they did was wrong when they did it. That is the problem with a lot of criminals. They can distinguish the difference between right and wrong, but they don’t do the right thing. This is where rehabilitation comes in.
Today, there are laws protecting those under the age of 18 from the death penalty in California.
In some states, only minors under the age of 16 are protected against the death penalty. Is that why these kids are doing things such as horrific as murdering a parent in cold blood? Do they understand that they can only be punished to a certain extent and feel that they can get away with more in California?
It is a good thing that there are laws protecting minors from the death penalty, and also that there has not been anyone under the age of 18 executed in this state.
These kids do not deserve to be killed. Two wrongs do not make a right. It would be just as wrong to kill these kids as it was for them to kill someone else. With the prison systems of today, there are many ways to rehabilitate children.
They can be helped, and with enough years of supervision, may be able to re-enter into society and become productive citizens. Why end a child’s life before it has even begun?
These children made terrible mistakes, but that is something that they have to live with for the rest of their lives.
It would be more of a punishment for them to have to go back out into society, where they will be watched closely by the community.
It will take them time to prove to everyone they know, and to people they don’t know, that they have changed.
The whole point to the judicial system is to protect the public. If someone can be successfully rehabilitated and put back into society, then that is one more productive person who is helping the community grow.
Nobody deserves to die, and it is certainly not right to take one life in place of another.
It is punishment enough for these youths, and anyone else facing the death penalty, to have to live with their decisions for the rest of their lives, and to face the shame they have created for themselves and their families.