Court Opinion

ID: 9596849
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:53:32.27918+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:36.105601
License: Public Domain

Benham, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I concur fully in the majority opinion; however, the fact that OCGA § 15-11-5 (b) (2) has today withstood constitutional attack does not mean that the statute cannot be improved. I write separately to encourage the General Assembly to complement the work it has done in the area of juveniles charged with committing felonies by setting statutory guidelines for the district attorney’s exercise of the discretionary decision of forum selection — whether a child should be tried in superior or juvenile court.1
In recent years, society has been horrified by the growing number of children committing heinous crimes, as well as the growing number of crimes in which children are the victims. Our children are the greatest resource that our society has. Every determination that is made by today’s society impacts the society that has not yet come of age — our children. The decision to prosecute a minor in superior court, with the goal of inflicting severe punishment on the child for the act, rather than in juvenile court, where the goal is to restore the child as a secure, law-abiding member of society (OCGA § 15-11-1), has an everlasting impact on society and must be the product of rational, thoughtful consideration, and not a reaction to the emotion of the moment combined with the horror that a child allegedly carried out the crime. As we cope with the reality that society has begotten some children who boastfully, remorselessly stride across the line which separates right from wrong, we must not forget that there are young people who only stray onto the wrong side of the law. We, as a society, must remember that some children are only strayers and we must actively work to rescue, rehabilitate, and nurture them. Our laws must give direction to those responsible for the enforcement of the laws who determine which child shall be set on a course of rehabilitation in the juvenile court system, and which child shall be sent to superior court for punishment.
*825Decided October 16, 1995
Reconsideration denied November 3, 1995.
Whiteman & Whiteman, Mary W. Whiteman, for appellant.
J. Tom Morgan, District Attorney, Sheila A. Connors, Desiree S. Peagler, Assistant District Attorneys, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Susan V. Boleyn, Senior Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Davis, Zipperman, Kirschenbaum & Lotito, Nicholas A. Lotito, Peters, Roberts, Borsuk & Taylor, Lynne Y. Borsuk, amici curiae.

 Such legislative guidelines are not without precedent, as OCGA § 17-10-30 sets forth parameters for the imposition of the death penalty.