Why California Should Continue To Try Children As Adults For Murder

California law says suspects 14 and older can be charged and tried as adults. About 20 percent of murders in the state are committed by people between the ages of 11 and 17.

Think about that for a second...think back to what you were doing when you were 11 years old. Try to find the situation that you were in at 11 years old that would have led to you commit murder.

I was in fifth grade at Webber Elementary in Westminster. I was playing Junior All-American Football and Little League Baseball. I was in karate, and playing on a basketball team at the Westminster Boys & Girls Club. I spent a lot of time at home with my family, hanging out with my friends from the neighborhood, and venturing off further than our parents wanted us to go, up to the liquor store our parents said was too far away, to play video games and buy more candy than we probably should have.

To think that there is a good percentage of kids out there who are committing murder at or around that same age is just astounding to me.

Before you counter my statement with my South Orange County livin' lifestyle, I'll counter back that I grew up in the poorest neighborhood in Westminster, an area heavily worked by a well-known street gang at the time, yet still, here I sit today, never having murdered anyone.

I was able to get to 18 without killing. Is it wrong of us not to expect that of all young people in California? I don't think it is an unrealistic goal. Again, I defer to my theory that I've done it, anyone can do it.

With a number like 20 percent of murders being committed by people who are not yet adults, what choice do we have other than to try these kids as adults? 

As juveniles, they will go into the system, be released when they are 18, essentially having served very little time for the murder that they have committed.

Our murder rates are bad enough as they are...can you imagine if on top of that, these kids knew that even if they murdered someone, they got a free pass on their 18th birthday? While I will grant that there may be certain special circumstances in all mandatory sentence laws that should be overturned by a judge and taken on a case by case basis, making a declaration as a society that if you commit a murder at 14, you could be thrown in jail for the rest of your life, sends a powerful message.

Let me also counter your argument in advance that at that age, you do not really have an understanding of the law and the consequences of your actions. Again, think back to when you were that age and tell me that you didn't know right from wrong, that you didn't know that you shouldn't kill other people, and that you didn't have an understanding that you would go to jail for doing so.