We can’t discard an 11-year-old

We can’t discard an 11-year-old

There is an age at which a child might be held fully responsible for his or her actions, but that age isn’t 11. At least it isn’t in any other Western democracy, and it shouldn’t be in the United States.

As painful as it may be for the family of Kenzie Houk to contemplate the release of Jordan Brown from custody when he reaches the age of 21, Lawrence County Common Pleas Court Judge Dominick Motto got it right when he ruled that Jordan should be tried as a juvenile, not as an adult.

Jordan was an 11-year-old, fifth grader when he allegedly shot and killed Houk, his father’s pregnant fiance, while she slept.

The Supreme Court of the United States has been grappling in recent decades with juvenile crime and punishment. It has found it unconstitutional to execute juveniles, regardless of their crimes, and has found life-without-parole sentences for juveniles unconstitutional when the conviction is for anything other than murder. But no recent Supreme Court case involved a defendant as young as 11 when the crime was committed, and there is little question that had Jordan been tried and convicted as an adult his case would have gone to the Supreme Court. The case had already gotten national and even international attention.

Kids are different

There is solid scientific evidence that the brains of adolescents have not yet developed the impulse control that differentiates juveniles from normal adults. We all know that instinctively. It’s why we don’t allow children to drive or drink or smoke and why prudent adults don’t give children unfettered access to deadly weapons (which is another aspect of Jordan’s case that we won’t address today).

Jordan is now 14. Assuming that he is found guilty, the state will have seven years to provide the treatment he will need to become a functioning adult in a free society. Pennsylvania has to get this right, for Jordan’s sake, of course, and for society’s protection. But also because a civilized nation doesn’t just lock up or discard its children, not even its very troubled children.