Washington Bill Could Allow Early Release for Juvenile Killers—If They Didn’t Kill More Than Two People
Additionally, the state would offer “rental vouchers” to new parolees.
Seattle, Washington radio host Jason Rantz reported that state lawmakers are set to vote on Senate Bill 5266-S2, which could grant early parole to individuals who committed murder before turning 18, provided they did not kill more than two people. Additionally, the state would offer “rental vouchers” to new parolees.
According to Rantz, this legislation would allow juvenile offenders to “petition the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board (ISRB) for early release upon reaching the age of 24, provided they meet specific criteria. Those convicted of three or more murder offenses must serve at least 20 years before petitioning.”
The bill is sponsored by State Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), who said this “is about accountability.”
Supporters of the bill argue that because a child’s brain is not fully developed until the age of 24, they should not be penalized so severely for crimes that occurred while they were minors.
To those concerned about public safety once these killers are released from prison, “supporters claim rigorous risk assessments and rehabilitative programs will keep the community safe.”
Rantz cited the case of a 71-year-old level three sex offender who “pleaded guilty to possessing images of child sexual abuse” last week.
Prosecutors say Alan Lewis Meirhofer lured teen boys to his home with gifts and weed. One of the boys found the explicit images on Meirhofer’s phone and told his mother, who called police. He was previously released as a Sexually Violent Predator from the Civil Commitment Center on McNeil Island, and then never completed a sex offender treatment program when he was released, according to the Washington State sex offender registry.
He reported that, “because of a procedural move,” a vote on the bill could be imminent.
Apparently, even some Democrats are opposed to this bill. Democratic State Rep. Lauren Davis, a guest on Rantz’s radio show, said, “Civil society has expectations around the appropriate punishment for taking a life.”
“This legislation would allow a person to leave prison as soon as six years after killing somebody,” Davis said. “The bill allows these early releases even for people convicted of two homicides. So, that’s three years per murder. That is just not objectively reasonable.”
A House version of S.B. 5266-S2 failed to garner the votes necessary for passage.
NEW: Democrats are readying a bill that would release juvenile killers from jail early — so long as they didn’t kill more than two victims, the apparent threshold for Democratic sympathy — and then give them free rent to live in your neighborhood.https://t.co/NGbb9MlybD
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) March 10, 2025
Given the lack of support among members of the Washington State House, it remains uncertain whether this bill will ever reach Governor Bob Ferguson’s (D) desk or if he would even sign it. However, the mere fact that such an outrageous measure was introduced and debated speaks volumes about the Democrats’ leniency toward crime.
There are signs that the justice system is taking a more lenient stance on juvenile offenders. For instance, in Roper v. Simmons (2005), the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty cannot be applied to individuals who were minors at the time of their crimes. The Court deemed it unconstitutional, citing a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
According to a PubMed Central report, “the justices determined that juveniles should be held to a lesser degree of culpability, compared to adults, due to a less developed frontal lobe and a higher susceptibility to antisocial influences.”
In Miller v. Alabama (2012), “the Court struck down mandatory life without the possibility of parole sentences” for juvenile homicide offenders. According to PMC, “individuals convicted of murder for a crime they committed as juveniles could still be sentenced to life without parole (LWOP), but mitigating factors (e.g., experiencing severe parental maltreatment in childhood) have to be taken into consideration by the judge before JHOs are sentenced.”
In Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016), the court ruled that “the abolition of mandatory LWOP sentences for juvenile offenders applied retroactively, which signified that JHOs who received this sentence prior to 2012 were eligible for resentencing. According to the Marshall Project, hundreds of JHOs have already been resentenced or released from prison since the 2016 ruling.”
While these Supreme Court decisions are understandable, the bill currently being considered by far-left Democrats in the Washington State Senate goes far beyond these rulings. This legislation poses a serious threat to public safety and further compounds the issue by burdening taxpayers with the cost of covering parolees’ rent.
And finally, if minors cannot be held responsible for the crimes of their youth because their brains haven’t fully developed, how can they be allowed to make life altering, and often irreversible, decisions about gender transition? Just asking.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Disgusting as only a democrat can be
They just love killers
What a tool.
Accountability is kryptonite to a broad group of people. Always excuses. Always ‘trauma’. Always…something…to try and avoid accountability. This argument about brain development is selective crap. If these folks want to establish age 25 as the new entry point into responsible adulting fine. No voting, no contracts, no joining the military, no Student loans, no rental agreement, no Trans, no medical decisions (including abortion), no adult decisions until age 25. But they won’t agree to that, nope instead they will seek to apply it selectively as a way to avoid accountability, consequences and repercussions for dumbass decisions and bad choices.
Well, another state I won’t be visiting any more.
“supporters claim rigorous risk assessments and rehabilitative programs will keep the community safe.”
“Prosecutors say Alan Lewis Meirhofer … never completed a sex offender treatment program when he was released”
And THAT is the level of “rigorous” you should always expect from government, once it gets what it wants. The kind that allows Tren de Aragua over the border with gift baskets and rental vouchers (“no thanks, we’ll just take yours”).
That’s smart. Set the limit at two and keep the murder rate at an acceptable level.
Redefine murder as killing more than two people.
So….
Open Purge season on Parents?
More leniency because he’s now an orphan?
Good idea. 2 murders or less will be classified as “juvenile hijinks”.
I could be OK with this if the rentals are only at the homes of legislators who voted for this, so they can provide first hand evidence of its success. It reminds me a bit of the CA $900 limit on shoplifting.
There’s an old joke, a lawyer is arguing before a judge that his client, sitting next to him and looking a bit crazed, should absolutely be let out on bail while awaiting trial for the multiple axe murders he’s accused of.
The judge grants bail, on one condition…
The defendant is released into his lawyer’s custody and must live with him at his place and be in his presence 24/7 while awaiting trial.
So they admit that a child’s brain isn’t fully developed until 24 but a child can decide it’s sex at any age, That logic hurts my fully developed brain.
lol
Great minds.
and they should get to vote at 16?
So, if I understand this logic correctly, under-18 brains aren’t sufficiently developed to understand murder-is-bad-m’kay but are absolutely 100% solid on reality-defying gender identity.
Got it.
My brother, who was White, was murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C., on June 4, 1969. He was the victim of an armed robbery and was shot in the back of the head. His murderer is Black.
Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., who was Black, sentenced the murderer effectively to time served even though this was in adult court. The judge used the Youth Correction Act (since repealed and replaced). The murderer was free to leave through the front door of the courthouse once the sentencing hearing ended. Upon completion of parole, his conviction was set aside and the records sealed. The murderer would then be permitted to state under oath that they had no conviction for this murder.
There were three accomplices to this murder. Each one was sentenced either to juvenile detention or under the Youth Correction Act. Thus, no one has a stain on their record. It was like my brother’s murder never happened. However, my brother stayed dead.
The couldn’t even get my brother’s death certificate correct. While it had his birth and death dates, it showed his age as 23 years old when he was only 22 years old.
My brother was to graduate from Catholic University of America that very week with a masters degree in Physics. He was engaged to be married. But the Washington Post failed to even report on his sentencing.
This is profoundly unjust. I hope the state of Washington recognizes that murders should not be swept under the rug.
Gangs already abuse the literal “kids gloves” approach to juvenile offenders. Letting them even have the possibility to get an early release just exacerbates this problem as children can easily be convinced to participate in hits knowing going through the motions would have them released in a mere 6 years.
You’d think democrats would be all in on this issue since it, as they say, disproportionately affects black Americans, but they seem to think making a life of crime easier to maintain is more important than eliminating criminal behavior root and stem.
Our society cannot continue to favor lawbreakers. Especially as juveniles become more and more aware of how easy the system is to navigate when your lawyer says the right words
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