THE United States has far more juveniles serving life terms than any other country �2387. Israel, the only other country that imprisons juveniles for life, according to a new study by the University of San Francisco's Center for Law & Global Justice, has seven �and has not issued such a sentence since 2004.

In the US, life terms have fallen disproportionately on non-white children, who are 10 times more likely than white children to be given life without parole, the report found.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...321693756.html

73 children in the US have been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for crimes committed when they were 13 or 14 years old.

The US is only country in the world known to have condemned 13- and 14-year-old children to imprisonment until death.

Most of these young children were accomplices to adults or older teens who were more culpable for the crime.

Seven, or roughly 10 percent, of the 73 children were convicted of crimes in which no one was killed. In one case, no one was even injured. All seven are children of color.

Six states have condemned 13-year-old children to imprisonment until death. All but one of these children are racial minorities.

Most of the 73 suffered years of severe abuse and neglect. Some tried to commit suicide as young as age eight.

Judges in the vast majority of these cases were forced to impose mandatory death-in-prison sentences without considering the child’s age or background or the circumstances of the crime.

Children of color are disproportionately sentenced to die in prison. Of the 73 children identified, roughly two-thirds are people of color; nearly half are African American.

Most of these kids are from poor families and received grossly inadequate legal representation. Court-appointed attorneys failed to file post-conviction appeals and never challenged the death-in-prison sentence in most of these cases.

All of the 73 have been sent to adult prisons, where many are the target of horrendous physical and sexual assault by adult inmates. One EJI client attempted suicide three times after being repeatedly raped by adult inmates.

http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/1799

The question is, do you feel that 17 years olds and younger should be put in prison for the rest of their lives? Up untill a year ago 17 and younger could be put on death row. Should children be on deathrow?