Wilson Proposes Overhaul of Juvenile Justice System

Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday proposed a package of 20 bills to get tougher on violent, juvenile criminals and suggested it was worth considering the death penalty for murderers as young as 14.

Currently, 14-year-olds can be tried as adults for major felonies but the most severe punishment they can receive is life in prison without possibility of parole. The minimum age for execution in California is 18.

Wilson has not proposed any legislation to lower the minimum age for the death penalty. But in talking to reporters about his proposed far-reaching legislative overhaul of the state’s juvenile justice system, he raised the possibility of a change.

The governor’s 20-bill proposal, parts of which were rejected last year by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, ranges from efforts to prevent youth crime to intervening with “at risk” youngsters to meting out tougher punishments.

“What is needed is a juvenile justice system that teaches our youngest offenders that crime is not child’s play,” the Republican governor told the Sacramento Press Club, where he announced the broad outlines of the package.

The issue of extending the death penalty to minors for murder and other especially heinous crimes came up shortly after Wilson demanded “severe” punishment for two 13-year-olds accused of stomping a diminutive, 61-year-old man to death last week at a Sacramento train station as witnesses watched.

“I would take a very long time, a very great deal of care before I would ever put them in a position where they could hurt someone else again,” the governor said.

Asked if the two should be subject to the death penalty if found guilty, Wilson gave an indirect answer. On a follow-up question, he indicated that reducing the age for eligibility for the death penalty would have to be defined in law.

Asked where he would define it in law, the governor said, “At 14.”

The death penalty for 14-year-olds? he was asked. “As a possibility,” the governor replied.

Later, Wilson’s aides said that none of the governor’s proposed reform bills would reduce the minimum age for the death penalty.

They said that in cases where a 14-year-old is charged with murder, Wilson’s legislation would enable prosecutors to bypass juvenile court and go directly to Superior Court. There the youth would be tried as an adult. The resulting maximum punishment would be life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the same as under current law, they said.

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), who supports the death penalty under certain circumstances, assailed the idea of lowering the death penalty age, as did the American Civil Liberties Union.

A possible death penalty for 14-year-olds would be a “mean-spirited, absolutely nutty idea,” Lockyer said. “The Republican presidential campaign must be gearing up,” he added.

Francisco Lobaco, lobbyist for the ACLU in Sacramento, said be believed the Legislature would “cast a jaundiced eye on such an extreme proposal. The state’s authority to kill people is not reform, whether it be 14 or 44.”

In the past, sporadic efforts to apply the death penalty to children have failed in the Legislature.

Wilson noted that the crime rate among adults has been falling for the past few years, while the crime rate among minors--particularly the rate of vicious crimes--has spiraled upward.

“No longer,” he said, “will the welfare of the young felon be the primary concern of the juvenile justice system.” He said the safety of ordinary, law-abiding citizens must be government’s top priority.

As juvenile crime has increased, pressure has mounted to deal with especially violent young offenders as adults. Last year, a law was passed that allows 14-year-olds accused of serious felonies to be tried as adults, but only after getting a Juvenile Court waiver.

Wilson did not announce details of his “prevention, intervention, suppression” juvenile justice plan Wednesday, but said he would do so today and Friday in Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside and Fresno.

Administration officials said, however, that one proposed bill would make it a death penalty offense for a gang member to murder someone for the benefit of fellow gangsters. Currently, such a crime is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.