District Attorney's Association falls short in recommendations

Recently,  the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Association announced that they arerecommending to legislators to increase the parole eligibility of juveniles convicted of first degree murder from 15 to 35 years. ( January 18th; DAs urge change to parole eligibility for juvenile murders)  This is a response to the recent Supreme Court Judicial Court’s ruling that grants parole proceedings to all convicted murderers who committed their crimes while juveniles after 15 years.

This is unacceptable.

Families of victims of heinous crimes have been permanently affected and their loved ones are permanently gone.  What the Association is doing is simply deferring a difficult decision down the road further which may inevitably end up in a release of a convicted criminal which will remove the only justice these families have known .  Additionally, when a juvenile commits a crime and can potentially be released back into society he or she will be in the prime of their lives and can carry out additional transgressions against society

What the Association should do is to vigorously defend the rights of victims as they were charged to do when they initially prosecuted their cases that lead to convictions.  They should also recommend comprehensive legislation that imposes an enormous burden on the defense of criminals to produce irrefutable evidence that rehabilitation has occurred to a degree that offender cannot possibly re-commit a crime.  

 Without this standard  criminals will be released into society to harm others again. 

It will simply only be a matter of time.

Joe D'Amore

Groveland, MA