Contrary to case observers claims, the fact is, this is a now 9 yo child who had a right to a competency hearing, but the adults in charge of the courts, found a way to side-step the competency hearing and allowed or persuaded, or whatever you want to call it, this child to sign documents that will follow him through his entire life.
TWO EXPERT psychologists, from both sides of the aisle, have stated the boy is incompetent to stand trial.
What to do?
JMHO
fran
Criminal Justice Magazine
http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/12-3gris.html
An essential part of meaningful decision making is the ability to foresee the consequences of a decision. Defendants must be able to imagine hypothetical situations, envisioning conditions that do not now exist and that they have never experienced, but which may result based on the choices they make. They must then evaluate these potential outcomes, comparing them with what they know or imagine to be more or less desirable or painful in life.
Several studies have found that pre-adolescents are significantly less capable of imagining risky consequences of decisions and are more likely to consider a constricted number and range of consequences. One recent study (with non-delinquent youths) found that pre-adolescents were less likely than older adolescents to think "strategically" about pleading decisions. (Michele Peterson-Badali & Rona Abramovitch, Grade Related Changes in Youth People's Reasoning about Plea Bargains, 17 L. & Hum. Behav. 537 (1993).) Youths begin to develop the ability to think in terms of hypothetical conditions some time in early adolescence, but it takes several more years for them to achieve their adult potential to do this, especially to use this ability in unusual and emotionally charged circumstances, such as their own legal proceedings. The time line for this process varies from one adolescent to another.
In general, child developmental researchers are beginning to identify ways in which adolescents differ from adults in making decisions. (For reviews, see Elizabeth Scott, Judgment and Reasoning in Adolescent Decision Making, 37 Vill. L. Rev. 1607 (1992); Elizabeth Scott et al., Evaluating Adolescent Decision Making in Legal Contexts, 19 L. & Hum. Behav. 221 (1995); Laurence Steinberg & Elizabeth Cauffman, Maturity of Judgment in Adolescence: Psychosocial Factors in Adolescent Decision Making, 20 L. & Hum. Behav. 249 (1996).) For example, until late adolescence, youths more often minimize perceived risks. (Laurence Cohn et al., Risk-Perception: Differences Between Adolescents and Adults, 14 Health Psychology 217 (1995).) Time perspective continues to develop through adolescence, such that younger adolescents are less likely to focus on longer-range consequences. (Elizabeth Cauffman & Laurence Steinberg, Age Differences in Decision-Making Are Due to Differences in Maturity of Judgment (manuscript in review, 1997).) Moreover, their decisions may be related to certain values, such as the importance of peer approval, which may result in choices they would not make when their values and sense of personal identity have matured.
One might expect such differences to be reflected in youths' judgments about the value of accepting plea bargains and of waiving important rights in the legal process. For example, in the Miranda study of more than 400 detained youths described earlier, juveniles were asked to imagine the consequences of waiving or asserting rights to silence when questioned by police. The consequence mentioned most frequently, especially by younger adolescents, was the immediate response of the police ("They might send me home tonight if I say I did it"), rather than the impact of the decision on later events in court. (Thomas Grisso, Juveniles' Waiver of Rights (1981).)
Much more scientific evidence is needed, however, before we know whether and how youths' immature judgment influences their decisions in their criminal and juvenile court trials, and some child development researchers are examining those questions. If they find that younger adolescents are greatly at risk of making decisions at trial that they might not make if they were adults, this will be of considerable importance in a time of juvenile justice reform that increases the likelihood that youths will suffer the consequences of their immature decisions well into their adult years.
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