The Juvenile Court System is Distinct from Adult Courts

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July 15, 1999, was an ordinary night for Kristopher Lohrmeyer as he left work at the Colorado City Creamer, a popular ice cream parlor. Kristopher had no idea that his life was about to end. When Michael Brown, 17, Derrick Miller and Andrew (Andy) Medina, 15, approached Kristopher and demanded his money and his car keys. Before the boys knew it shots had been fired and Kristopher was dead. About an hour after the fatal shooting of Kristopher Lohrmeyer, all three men were in custody and telling their version of the night’s events. Michael and Derrick who had run away after the shooting confessed to police and named Andy as the shooter. According to the three boy’s testimony, they had only recently met and needed away to get some quick cash, so they developed a carjacking scheme and headed to Andy’s house to pick up 2 stolen handguns. The three boys were uneducated and had spent most of their time on the streets in search of drugs. The judge ruled that they would be held without bail and there was probable cause to charge them all with first-degree murder (Thrown Away, 2005). Michael and Derrick both struck a deal in exchange for implicating Andy as the one who fired the fatal shots. Under Colorado’s felony murder rule, Andy could be found guilty of first-degree murder just for simply participating in a violent felony. Of the three boys, Andy would be the only one to stand trial for first-degree murder, which could carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole. In May 2001, Andy went to trial, after a brief deliberation, the jury found Andy guilty of robbery and murder in the first-degree. Andy has been serving his sentence in a Colorado State Penitentiary, the state’s “supermax” high-security prison for the past 9 ye... ... middle of paper ... ...uency (1996). Cohen, Lawrence E and James R. Kluegel. "The Detention Decision: A study of the Impact of Social Characteristics and legal Factors." Social Forces September 1979: 146-177. Gebo, Erika. "A Family Affair: The Juvenile Court and Family Violence Cases." Juvenile Family Violence 30 June 2007: 501-509. Larry H. Gaines, Roger Leroy Miller. Criminial Justice in Action. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2009. Pyne, Derek. "When is it efficient to treat juveniles more leniently than adult offenders." Economic Government. Springer-Verlag, 20 July 2010. Reuters, Thomson. Find Law. 2011. . Soulier, Matthew F. and Scott L. Charles. "Juveniles in Court." Harvard Review of Psychiatry (Nov 2010): 317-325. Thrown Away. 1 February 2005. . U.S. Department of Justice - Office of Justice Programs. 1 December 2011

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