{"id":29317,"date":"2021-02-18T10:25:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29317"},"modified":"2021-02-18T10:25:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:25:24","slug":"sentencing-reform-proposed-for-younger-offenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29317","title":{"rendered":"Sentencing reform proposed for younger offenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 17 on a bill that would change certain sentencing provisions for young offenders.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB34, sponsored by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, would prohibit life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for crimes committed by someone under 21.<\/p>\n

The United States is the only nation that sentences people to life without parole for crimes they committed before turning 18, Pansing Brooks said, although 24 states already have prohibited life without parole as a sentencing option for young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we sentence youth under 18 to life in prison without parole, we are sentencing them to die in prison,\u201d she said. \u201cUnder LB34, these children may still receive harsh sentences, but they will also know that they have the option of paying their debt, coming to terms with their mistakes and someday returning to society and becoming productive citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill also would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for Class IC and ID felonies committed by someone under 21.<\/p>\n

Tom Riley, speaking on behalf of the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, supported LB34. He said the science clearly shows that an individual\u2019s brain is not fully developed until age 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe juveniles act irrationally … they don\u2019t think things through and sometimes do really bad stuff,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re irreparably corrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also speaking in support of the bill was Dwayne Tucker of Omaha. He said he was sentenced to life in prison without parole at 17, but was paroled after a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned automatic life sentences for juveniles as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thrown into an adult system with no knowledge of what that really meant,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cI was 32 before I realized what it really meant to be incarcerated for the rest of my life. Growing up in an adult prison, a child doesn\u2019t have the opportunity to grow as a child should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposing the bill was Erin Tangeman, appearing on behalf of the Nebraska Attorney General\u2019s Office. The bill minimizes the nature of the crimes committed, she said, and the danger that offenders pose to the public.<\/p>\n

Age should be a factor in sentencing, she said, but not the sole factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leniency given by LB34 ignores the victim and the victim\u2019s family whose lives have often been shattered by these offenses,\u201d Tangeman said. \u201cDetermining the appropriate punishment and best outcomes for public safety should be done on a case-by-case basis with life imprisonment without parole as an option.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 17 on a bill that would change certain sentencing provisions for young offenders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-29317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-patty-pansing-brooks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/LB34PansingBrooks2-17-21a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29318,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29317\/revisions\/29318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}