iary, making him the youngest inmate in the United States to be sent to a high-security facility (http://www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm). By contrast, 13 year-old Eric Smith, convicted of murdering a 4 year-old in 1995, was tried as an adult. The jury deliberated 10 hours before returning a verdict of guilty on the charge of second-degree murder. Sentenced to nine years to life, Smith will be kept under psychiatric care as a juvenile until he turns 21, at which time he will continue his sentence in an adult prison (http://www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm). In Florida, the case of 13 year-old Cedric Green, who was charged in the murder of British tourist Gary Colley, spurred U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, a black, liberal democratic, to push for an amendment to the Omnibus Anti-crime Bill seeking adult trials for juveniles as young as 13 years old. Her motive was she heard that Cedric Green was first boasting in school about how the courts can not do anything to him because he was a minor. In pursuing her amendment, Moseley-Braun had this to say on the Senate floor, “At the present time, we are grappling with a situation in which these juveniles leave no record, leave no fingerprints. They can shoot someone with impunity at 14 years of age…and do not have to account for their actions” (Glazer 173). To help substantiate her notion, she also noted that 13-year-olds committed more than 14,000 aggravated assaults in 1992. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, agreed by stating “This is not an easy thing to do, but these are not just kids. These are kids with guns doing violent, brutal, murderous things” (Idelson 3129). Chairman of the Judiciary Sub-committee Senator Herb Kohl, who along with Moseley-Braun’s amendment sought an amendment to make it a federal offense for juveniles to possess a handgun or any ammunition. However, the exemption for youths that had parental permission for ranching, hunting, ...
