No Second Chance:
Does Florida Over-criminalize Juvenile Offenders?
watch
Past Event | February 15, 2017
No Second Chance:
Does Florida Over-criminalize Juvenile Offenders?

Over the last decade, a series of U.S. and Florida Supreme Court cases has dramatically changed how juveniles can be sentenced as adults. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued several landmark decisions since 2005 that define the ways juveniles are different in the eyes of the law. However, Florida is an outlier in an outlier. The United States is the only nation that sentences children to life without parole. And among the states, Florida is one of five with the highest concentration of people eligible to potentially receive a new prison sentence based on the rapidly changing case law. Should we give juveniles a second chance….even if they commit an adult crime? (See pictures of this event here.)

 

Judge Elijah Williams
Juvenile Delinquency Division Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit Court in Florida
Maria Schneider | Assistant State Attorney
17th Judicial Circuit
Gordon Weekes | Chief Assistant
Broward Public Defender's Office
Major David Holmes
Broward Sheriff's Office