(The Center Square) — The Louisiana House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice moved favorably on a bill giving lawmakers more discretion with charging juveniles as adults.
The committee’s 7-3 vote advances the bill to the House floor to be debated on and voted for. This comes after the Senate already adopted it.
Senate Bill 2, authored by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Allen, gives the legislature power to vote on a type of violent crime in which the court has discretion to waive normal juvenile procedures in favor of adult procedures for an individual case. Each crime has to receive a two-thirds vote before enacted.
For example, if lawmakers wanted to allow a juvenile who committed aggravated assault to be tried as an adult, with a two-thirds vote they could give the power to courts to do so at their discretion.
This comes after the Legislature passed a bill earlier this year moving the age to be tried as an adult back to 17. So, this new bill would apply to 16 and below.
Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Jefferson, sat at the witness desk to answer questions and show a violent video in which a defenseless teenager was beaten senselessly by several other juveniles who recorded the act.
Currently, there are some violent crimes that allow for adult court in the case of a juvenile. Those include attempted or actual first and second degree murder, aggravated or forcible rape, armed robbery, or the second case of aggravated battery.
This means, in the case of the video Villio showed, those teenagers could not be charged as adults since the victim lived, despite intense head trauma.
Villio also says this would not only give the district attorney’s more discretion for higher charges, but would allow them to lower the charges in some cases, allowing teenagers to be tried as juveniles in the case they have a weapon but don’t use it. Right now, that would categorize as armed robbery rather than, for example, car jacking.
Villio added the point that Louisiana is the last state to enact such a bill, and although there are questions about uncontrolled power, this vote from the house merely sends it to the voters in the next election. This means the people will have the right to decide if their legislator should be able to do this.
Additionally, there are laws in place to separate minors from adults, even in adult prisons. However, once they turn 18, the are moved to a regular cell with the rest of the inmates.
