Lwop Alternatives

Trevor Jones was by all accounts a good kid.   He was raised in a working class family, and had excelled both academically and in sports during high school.   He never had been in trouble with the law.   But one day, one costly decision, changed his life forever.   Trevor had this brilliant idea that he was going to sell a gun to a mutual friend of his for a hundred dollars.   Later that week, Trevor and a buddy left with a gun in hand to make the sell.   A mutual friend of theirs decided to by the gun from Trevor, so the two boys decided to meet at a parking lot to do the exchange. When Matt gave him the money, Kevin kept both the gun and money telling Matt he better not tell anyone about this.   As Trevor and his friend started walking away, he claims the gun discharged on accident striking Matt in the head; he died later that evening in the hospital. Trevor turned himself in the next day to the police.   During the trial, Trevor testified that the gun went off accidently.   The jury agreed with him and charged him with reckless manslaughter instead of first degree murder.   But they also convicted him of robbery, which resulted in a conviction on the charge of a felony murder and a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.   Trevor's legal team appealed the convictions, arguing their client was being punished for Matt Foley's death twice, once for the manslaughter conviction and again with felony murder. They argued the court should throw out the felony murder conviction because manslaughter more accurately represented the will of the jury.   Their appeal was denied and Trevor started serving his sentence in 1997 (Bikel).   This is just one of hundreds of cases of a child being sentenced to life in prison without any possibility of parole.   Many will argue that Trevor and others juveniles get what they deserve. But do they really? It is clear that this kid and many others juveniles behind bars have committed horrible acts. Should children who have...