What punishment should a 13 year old get if he murder a cop in school?

[angus]

So, huh, you can do anything you want if you're 13 and under?  I hope you at least miss a week of school if you murder a dozen of your classmates.

No, you can't.  At least not here.  A 13-year-old here who murdered someone would be treated as a juvenile, but that's not the same as saying that you can do anything you want.  He would likely be placed in a juvenile attention center, at least that's what they were being called when I was a student.  When I was in sociology class as a university freshman, we had to do some project, and I decided to volunteer 30 hours over the course of two weeks at a place called Youth Attention Center, which was where you went if you committed a serious crime before the age of 15.  There were murderers and rapists there.  It wasn't prison, and they weren't abused or tortured, and they were fed well and could wear civilian clothes, but they were not free to leave.  In most cases they were held till their 17th birthday and then released.  At least the thugs and fighters and thieves.  I think the killers and rapists might have been special cases, and I think that their fate was determined on a case-by-case basis.  In some cases it was determined that they were not mature enough to appreciate their actions, and they were released with the thought that the psychological attention that they received in the YAC would have rehabilitated them.  In other cases, they were tried as adults once they reached the age of 17.  1At least that's the way it was in 1986. 

[angus]

Obviously, this is the sort of circumstance that will vary widely by state.  Here's what I found out about Iowa.  A juvenile is someone who is 15 years old or younger.  A juvenile who commits a crime goes to juvenile court.  In the case of either Murder, voluntary manslaughter, Assault causing serious injury, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, First degree arson, First degree burglary, Robbery, or Felonious child endangerment, the juvenile court may waive its jurisdiction at the conclusion of the hearing if all of the following apply:

            (6)(a). The child is fourteen years of age or older.

                (b) The court determines, or has previous determined in a detention hearing under section 232.44, that there is probable cause to believe that the child has committed a delinquent act which would constitute the public offense.

                (c) The court determines that the state has established that there are not reasonable prospects for rehabilitating the child if the juvenile court retains jurisdiction over the child and the child is adjudicated to have committed the delinquent act, and that waiver of the court’s jurisdiction over the child for the alleged commission of the public offense would be in the best interests of the child and the community.


So, the bottom line is that these cases are dealt with individually.  A 13-year-old who murders in Iowa would be apprehended and sent to juvenile court.  That court cannot decide to treat him as an adult, because he is not yet 14 when he was arrested.  (Note that in Iowa day zero starts not on the day of the crime, but on the day of the arrest.)  If he is 14 when arrested, the court may or may not decide to treat him as an adult, if the aforementioned conditions hold.  In this case, the maximum penalty would be imprisonment for life.  Iowa does not have a death penalty, so the maximum sentence for murder is life imprisonment.  For a juvenile who is tried as a juvenile, which would necessarily be the case for a 13-year-old, there would be an attempt at forced rehabilitation and the juvenile would be placed under psychiatric care at one of four facilities for a length of time to be determined by the court on a case-by-case basis.

I got all this from the website of a Des Moines area attorney.

[I left.]

So, huh, you can do anything you want if you're 13 and under?  I hope you at least miss a week of school if you murder a dozen of your classmates.

No. They can certainly lock up the child for psychological treatment and such (for several years), but it's important to distinguish between punitive sentences and others in German law (and I imagine Austrian law as well).

[Vermin Supreme]

Not even question for me.

?

[True Federalist]

Not even question for me.

?

His lawyer doesn't want him commenting on anything similar to his case.

[Tender Branson]

Not even question for me.

?

He wants the kid to be executed, what else ?

[Vermin Supreme]

This kid is screwed if death row is on the hotline for him. What a waste of life that would be.

[angus]

This kid is screwed if death row is on the hotline for him. What a waste of life that would be.

Mama, I just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead

Mama, life has just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away

Mama, oo oo oo oooh
Didn't mean to make you cry,
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on...