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.
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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