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Article: Old Enough to Kill: Should teen killers be tried as adults? Christine Stolba looks to history for some answers.
- Article from:
- Women's Quarterly
- Article date:
- September 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Independent Women's Forum. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Nathaniel Brazill sat quietly in his starched khaki shirt and neatly knotted black tie. Wreathed in baby fat, wearing a quizzical expression, the Florida teenager was on trial for murder as an adult.
A spate of recent cases involving young killers--among them mop-topped Californian Andy Williams, fifteen, who took a gun to school and killed two classmates, and Lionel Tate, another Florida teen, who pummeled a six-year-old neighbor to death--has renewed debate about the way courts treat juvenile offenders and the effectiveness of our separate juvenile justice system.
Should the courts treat children the same way they treat adults? Are ...