Persecution by prosecution of children

We the People have reached a stage that we feel must see change in order to give our children fair treatment and justice in our current legal system. The number of children being persecuted and prosecuted within the boundaries of this terrifying legal system is growing everyday and we must stop it before we find no child is safe from political hungry prosecutors and bias judges.

Our research has fueled our beliefs that the federal government is paying each state for the number of adult cases brought into court but a much lesser amount for juvenile cases. This is what we believe is the number one reason why individual state and local courts are transferring children into the adult system. It is time for this to end.

As concerned citizens of these United States, we will support any Bill, Motion or simple idea to end local jurisdiction of decisions that charge juveniles as adults. This is a decision that should be placed in the federal courts where it belongs. By forcing local and state judges and prosecutors to present proper evidence and cause as to why any juvenile they are charging with any crime should be transferred into adult court, it will take away the local and state authority to do just that and make it more difficult. States have overstepped their bounds by charging child after child as adults when it is quite obvious they are still children. If any criminal deserves a chance to rehabilitate, it is a child. But more adults are given that chance than the children our courts are convicting.

By moving the decision to charge a juvenile as an adult into a federal level, local prosecutors seeking to improve their political ambitions and judges who refuse to abide by a federal decision will be forced to accept it without recourse.

A recent example to why this is so important is Judge James Kitchens of Mississippi who presided over the trial of 15-year-old Tyler Edmonds. A former prosecutor himself, Kitchens refused bond for Tyler for the entire time he was awaiting trial. A federal judge ordered Kitchens to give Tyler a bond hearing within two days but he once again refused and suggested the prosecutor on the case file an appeal. This is unacceptable and wrong. This judge sided with the prosecution and decided he would not allow the federal courts to over rule his own decision.

We believe it is time to take that decision away from these local judges and prosecutors and place it at the federal level where these children stand a better chance of being treated fairly and justly.

Thank you.