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In 2022, Mississippi youth courts handled more than 9,000 cases involving juvenile offenders, according to the state Department of Human Services Division of Youth Services annual report.
But what happens when a minor commits a crime that warrants them being tried as an adult, as was the case Dec. 8 when an Oktibbeha County 13-year-old was charged with her mother’s murder?
How is the case transferred from youth court to adult criminal court? When is an adult charge automatic? How are those offenders sentenced?
Juvenile justice in America
At the end of the 19th century, cultural perceptions evolved from viewing children as miniature adults to recognizing their distinct developmental state, driving reforms like child labor laws and increased school enrollments.
The first juvenile justice court was established in 1899 in Illinois, operated on the principle that children, being less mentally developed than adults, should not face the same punishment, according to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Juvenile courts spread across the country, offering minors alternative sentences to those given to adults convicted of crimes.
Later in the 1980s and ‘90s, in an effort to combat juvenile crime, states began passing punitive laws for juvenile crimes including mandatory sentences and automatic transfers to adult court for specific offenses. According to data from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, nearly every state legislature including Mississippi enacted laws making it easier for children to be tried as adults.
Automatic transfers in Mississippi
Transfers from youth court to circuit court in Mississippi are dictated by a statutory exclusion, meaning minors convicted of certain offenses are excluded from being defined as a “child” for the purposes of juvenile court jurisdictions.
Mississippi Code § 43-21-151 states that youth court retains exclusive original jurisdiction in all proceedings concerning delinquent children except in certain circumstances. If a child aged 13 or older attempts or commits a crime with a deadly weapon or an offense warranting life imprisonment or the death penalty for an adult, the case will automatically fall under the jurisdiction of the adult criminal court.
For example, a 14-year-old arrested for homicide with use of a deadly weapon is automatically treated as an adult within the court system.
Sentencing for excluded minors
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court forbade mandatory sentences of life without parole for minors convicted of homicide crimes in Miller v. Alabama on the basis of it being cruel and unusual punishment given the underdevelopment of children’s brains.
In its Montgomery v. Louisiana decision made four years later, the court decided the previous ruling in Miller v. Alabama should be applied retroactively. This ruling required states to either offer parole to or hold new sentencing hearings for everyone serving a mandatory sentence of life without parole for an offense committed under the age of 18.
In 2022, the Mississippi legislature passed Senate Bill 2244 to “provide alternative sentencing and parole options for juvenile offenders in compliance with the United States Supreme Court holding” in Miller v. Alabama. The bill allows people sentenced to life in prison before the age of 18 to be eligible for parole after 20 years.
Juveniles can still be sentenced to life without parole if the court determines rehabilitation is impossible as per Montgomery v. Louisiana.
District Attorney Scott Colom told The Dispatch in a phone interview the court has the burden of examining details about the case before handing down a life without parole sentence.
“The court has to make certain findings in regard to those factors before a juvenile can be given that sentence,” he said.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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