Post date: Mar 1, 2015 3:41:32 AM
I think it should be impossible for a teenager to be tried as an adult. I know the US Constitution's Sixth Amendment does not guarantee a trial by peers, but that line of thinking does illuminate a path. Teenagers are not randomly selected to be jurors because they are not reliable in their means and modes of thought. Teenagers not allowed to enter contracts without their guardian's consent and therefore cannot reliably swear to be impartial as jurors. Teenagers are not adults under the law.
And yet, when the prosecution finds a crime to be abhorrent the prosecution can seek to try a child, suddenly, as an adult. The defendant is then subject to rules that he or she would never be qualified to judge objectively as a juror. The logical conclusion is that if a person cannot judge the legality of a case involving others, then that person should not be subject to those same laws as-if he or she could judge the legality of those actions.