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The information in this section directly relates to Just Mercy because the main case of the book, the Walter McMillian case, centers around a man who was wrongly convicted. McMillian was put on Death Row for a crime he did not commit, and unfortunately he is not the only one. As the website details, an increasing number of innocent people are being jailed, and one reason cited in the article for this phenomenon is official indifference. The corruption and indifference of officials is the entire reason why McMillian was put in jail, as they just wanted someone to jail even if it was not the right person.

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No justice is not being served. Lifes are being taken for mistakes made as a child, when they came up from bad circumstances and are punished severely. By giving them life without parole, you never give them the opportunity to earn their freedom back, and essentially condemn them to death.

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I would have shortened the sentence, put them in a juvenile jail for young people, and have them counseled for their psychiatric problems. Trina had clear trauma and should have been in a mental hospital. Ian should have received a lesser sentence because he did not have parental supervision, it was not his gun, and he had an incompetent lawyer. Antonio should have been placed in a mental facility, as he had major trauma and did not deserve to be in prison for life because he did not even injure anyone.

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They all had an abusive past that resulted in trauma. Their backgrounds should definitely make a difference in their sentencing, given that the trauma and the mental illnesses they had severely impacted their decision making. Also, they’re children.

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We wouldn’t send them to adult prisons. It would have been more beneficial to send them to mental health rehabilitation facilities, and we would have given them a lesser sentence.

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No, because their brains are still developing, and they can rehabilitate much faster than adults.

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Would have tried them as juveniles instead of adults, as well as giving them medium sentences with early chances for parole for good behavior.

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Sydney Clous, Abby Criscuolo, Grace Holland, Grace Niemeyer

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Sydney Clous, Abby Criscuolo, Grace Holland, Grace Niemeyer

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Justice is not being served when children are sentenced to die in prison because they are thrown in prison before their minds are fully developed and their decision making skills are at a peak. When throwing a child in prison to serve out a sentence till they die, it is not teaching them anything and is not benefiting anyone when they are not only not matured mentally enough to handle such a sentence, but also susceptible to predators of men who are also imprisoned for life.

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Before any of these children were arrested, they lived hard lives surrounded by abuse, poverty, and drug addiction as they were all from low income areas with high crime rates.  This background should make a difference in their sentencing because it impacts why they would do the crime in the first place and it would help what other people influenced them into doing this crime.

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All three of them were from low-income backgrounds and suffered from abuse. Their background definitely should have been factored into their sentencing, as it explains why they did what they did. Their mental health issues also should have been factored in so they could have been sent to a mental health rehabilitation facility instead of a prison.

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Life before jail for all of the children was devastating. Most of the children sentenced to life in jail under the age of 14 are living under the poverty line, are abused or face bad living conditions. This should make a difference in their sentencing because the things happening during their childhood were unavoidable and not their fault. The environment they were in affects their mental health and their ability to make decisions.

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I think for a large majority of the time, no. From what I read about Trina, Ian, and Antonio’s cases, none of them deserved life in prison or a death sentence. I think it’s more important to get children like these the help that they need, mostly with mental health and domestic issues. In Ian’s case, he spent 18 years in solitary confinement, and even the woman who he shot believed he shouldn’t be in there. A child does not need to die for “justice” to be served, especially when court cases aren’t always fair in the sense of juries, race implications, poverty, etc.

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I believe that the lawyers in their cases did not do much to help Trina, Ian, and Antonio. As Stevenson said, Ian’s lawyer pushed him to plead guilty to the crime he was convicted for, but he was unaware of some of the laws in the state. Ian still got a life sentence regardless of pleading guilty. I would have pushed for the children to not be tried as adults and bring in more facts about their life, physical/mental health, abandonment, etc. I don’t think their lawyers focused enough on the facts that they were all mistreated, homeless/abandoned, and had severe mental health issues.

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Sydney Clous, Abby Criscuolo, Grace Niemeyer, Grace Holland 

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Sydney Clous, Abby Criscuolo, Grace Niemeyer, Grace Holland 

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1. Similarly to the information Stevenson discussed in the chapters, even today children as young as eight can be charged as adults. The age at which a child can be thrown into prison still stays undecided as children of all ages wind up in prison and some for life. In the same way Stevenson described the sentences of a few children, children are being charged harshly at young ages for crimes where no one was even hurt.  When sentencing a child, their age and background are not taken into consideration for example how in the chapters Trina’s tragic childhood was not allowed to be mentioned in her trial.

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The information I read on this topic immensely relates to the cases summarized in chapter 8. Trina, Ian, and Manuel were all children sentenced to life in prison and they were all put into adult facilities. Ian proved a lot of what the statistics were saying, such as that he was very suicidal and cut himself with anything sharp he could find. His mental state was very poor due to the fact that he was in solitary confinement. Despite all of these kids showing improvement in the facilities they were housed in, they spent many years in jail. Additionally, all of their trials seemed to be unfair due to the lack of effort from their lawyers, unjust laws, and not showing evidence of their mental health issues.

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No, there is so much time left in their life and many of the crimes they commit do not even warrant death. Their brains are not fully developed so they do not understand the gravity of many situations. There is so much time to actually fix children's mental state and taking their lives away for a choice that they did when they were not developed is unjust.

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Each of the kids struggled with domestic abuse, rape, assault, and poverty in their youth. This should of course be taken into account when sentencing them, because the trauma that comes from these events can permanently affect the brain and in turn make them make rash decisions without thought or understanding.

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We would not make them serve the full penalty, they are not adults and their brains are not fully developed so they should not be treated like an adult would. They can also be influenced and not understand the repercussions of their actions.

Their upbringings, mental illnesses, and abuse/trauma should all be factors included when deciding there punishment

The children still had time to develop, change, and learn, in their cases they needed help not punishment, sending children to a mental hospital or rehab can be more beneficial then putting them in prison. Children should be given the opportunity to grow up.

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Justice is not being served because kids have so much life ahead of them but the death penalty takes away their lives. When kids commit crimes, their brains are not fully developed yet so it would be ignorant to fully penalize a kid for not understanding the entirety of the situation.

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Each of the children came from hard backgrounds. The children came from abusive families and had parents who died at a young age. Since all of the children had very challenging childhoods and were abandoned and did not have a stable living situation, this caused physiological problems from mental/emotional trauma.

This understanding about their backgrounds should most definitely make a difference in their sentencing because each of the children had serious mental/emotional trauma which caused psychological problems and each of the children came from communities with high poverty and crime rates which influences the children's actions and decision making skills.

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The information I read in the chapters that said how the children faced adult convictions, for instance, Trina faced 2nd Degree Adult Murder. By such conviction, she was sent into an adult prison, as the article states this happens frequently. Even though she had such past trauma and is only 13 years old, the court still gave her an adult sentence. The article discusses how judges do not look into the lives of children and their background, instead treat their crimes the same as an adult with a fully developed brain. 

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The information I read in the chapters that said how the children faced adult convictions, for instance, Trina faced 2nd Degree Adult Murder. By such conviction, she was sent into an adult prison, as the article states this happens frequently. Even though she had such past trauma and is only 13 years old, the court still gave her an adult sentence. The article discusses how judges do not look into the lives of children and their background, instead treat their crimes the same as an adult with a fully developed brain. 

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Dani, Victoria, Grace, and Jessica

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I think that a lot of these crimes should have less harsh sentencing because a lot of them was tried as adults and no one considered their backgrounds

Many of these sentences should have had significantly reduced jail time, maybe payments, but some of them definitely should be sent to get mental help for their trauma

Many of these sentences were too harsh and the courts need to consider more about age and background

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Justice isn’t being served when children are sentenced to prison for life. They are children who should be treated as such. This makes me really mad because society has such double standards. Julia brought up the point that we are constantly told “oh grow up, act your age” but then children get put in adult prison??? And for life???

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None of them should have been sent to jail

They were so young that had room for growth and change

They all had really crappy lives: mental illness and violence in their childhood

Being sent to a mental hospital would help them more than jail

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Trina

Dad was abusive/violent/alcoholic

Her dad straggled the dog then beat it with a hammer

Taught to be invisible to stay out of harm’s way

Was bouncing from relative to relative or the streets

Ian

Lived on the streets

Had no parents

Shoplifted for food

Shot a woman during an attempted robbery

Antonio

Grew up in a violent area in LA

Around gangs and people got killed from crossfire

Beat by his father+neglective/depressed mother

Went to Vegas and had to come back because of probation

Suffered PTSD and trauma symptoms being around where his brother was shot

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Before they were arrested they all came from troublesome backgrounds. They all experienced immense trauma which was a major catalyst for the crimes they were sentenced for. That understanding should be taken into account because their trauma was out of their childhood trauma and how they were raised made them come to the point they were at then.And that the background of a child who is incarcerated is most likely the reason they have committed the crime and what has got them to that point.

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I would have changed the ruling of their sentencing. I would have taken into account their past and either sentenced them until they were 18 in a facility and state mandated therapy or just sent them to a juvenile facility for adequate mental health care until they were 18 and then reviewed their cases.

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Justice is not being served in cases when children are being put to death or sentenced to life in jail since when a child commits a crime it is most likely due to the fact of proper childhood or where horrible circumstances that the child had to go through.

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The idea of excessive punishment applies to the stories of the different people in chapter eight. As teenagers they were all sentenced to lengthy punishments for their crimes, even though they probably should not have received them. For example, Trina Garnett was sentenced to life in prison after she accidently killed two people in a fire. It is much too common for criminals, especially kids, to receive a punishment that is more harsh than it should be.

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Children are young and impressionable , they need guidance to help them progress throughout their life. Evil is a learned trait and if children are young and having to face legal trouble this is probably a result of their environment which they can't control. As a result they should not face death sentences, not this young.

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1. I would have helped the kids get into homes and care facilities instead of prisons.

2. I would have made sure the measures to an extent that these kids were abused were taken into consideration when they were sentenced, this would include medical records, records of abuse and other things that affected these kids and led them to this.

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Life was atrocious for the teenagers before prison, and the backgrounds can help contribute to the necessity and severity of the crime. As people can get off murder for temporary insanity in today’ world, these backgrounds should help create some sort of environment where the defendants were struggling.

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In the 8th chapter, we read there were stories about younger kids who were convicted that were in very tough situations, to begin with. When I read these articles there was a lot of information about people who had issues with drugs or minor crimes that were being severely punished. Even though they have not had direct punishment in jail, the sentences they receive are considered to be harsh because not only are they children, but their upbringings were really tough. There are too many situations that are not given enough consideration before the decisions are made, resulting in unfair treatment and excessive punishment.