Many people in the criminal justice reform movement believe people should not be held fully responsible for their criminal actions, and it is continuing to push that idea forward in several states.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on Thursday that anyone under the age of 21 cannot be sentenced to life in prison without parole. This was in response to the case of Sheldon Mattis, a gang member who, along with Nyasani Watt, gunned down a 16-year-old in cold blood. They had also tried to kill a 14-year-old in that same shooting.
Watt was given a life sentence with parole eligibility after just 15 years, a ludicrously soft sentence because he was 17 at the time of the shooting. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had previously ruled that 17-year-olds can’t be locked up for life without the possibility of parole. Now, the court extended that to Mattis, who was 18 at the time, as well as anyone between the ages of 18 and 20.
“Advancements in scientific research have confirmed what many know well through experience: the brains of emerging adults are not fully mature,” the majority wrote. “Specifically, the scientific record strongly supports the contention that emerging adults have the same core neurological characteristics as juveniles.”
Just to recap: Massachusetts’s highest court thinks that 20-year-olds’ brains are not developed enough to know that murder is wrong. Massachusetts is a state where 2-year-olds can change their gender but 20-year-olds can’t be treated as cold-blooded murderers who must be permanently removed from society. Children must be treated as adults, but actual adults, who are old enough to drive or join the military, must be infantilized so they do not face justice for gunning down teenagers in cold blood as part of a gang shooting.
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It won’t stop here, either. Criminal justice reform activists will keep pushing the “emerging adults” narrative that the court embraced, and the court already opened the door for the next fight. “For the purposes of this opinion, ‘emerging adult’ is defined as someone who is eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years of age,” the court wrote. “Although the record contains some references to individuals who are as old as twenty-four years of age as ‘emerging adults.’”
Coming soon to a Massachusetts court case near you: Are 24-year-olds old enough to know that murder is wrong and therefore be sentenced to life in prison without parole? You already know what criminal justice reform activists will answer.