NEW CASTLE, Pa., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A court will decide if a 12-year-old Pennsylvania boy could become the youngest person in U.S. history to serve a life sentence, observers say.
Court watchers say a Lawrence County, Penn., judge will hear arguments this week about whether to try Jordan Brown on murder charges as a juvenile or as an adult, the Pittsbugh Post-Gazette reported Monday.
If it is the latter, the boy could be slapped with a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of a parole for the shotgun slaying of his father's pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child, an act Jordan allegedly carried out when he was 11.
If he is tried as a juvenile, he could not jailed beyond his 21st birthday, the Post-Gazette said.
"It is irresponsible to be sending into adult court these youth who are still growing and changing," Jody Kent, executive director of the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, told the newspaper. "It's impossible to determine now what an 11-year-old is going to look like 20, 30, 40 years from now."
But relatives of victim Kenzie Houk, 26, say nine years in the juvenile system isn't punishment enough for Jordan.
