Court Opinion

ID: 9718240
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:19:27.176613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:58.116191
License: Public Domain

PAPADAKOS, Justice,
concurring.
It is an understatement to say that this is a difficult case. But it has also often been said that hard cases make bad law. The Chief Justice has written for the majority in a dispassionate way, highlighting the law as expressed by the legislature, and I join in that opinion. Some of our colleagues, however, cry for the recognition of a public policy that children of the age of nine years and under (how about 10 or 11 or 12 years of age, etc.?) must not be treated as murderers and must not be tried as murderers under any circumstances. Perhaps they are right. But that is a matter better left to the Legislature.
It seems to me that the concurring justices are engaging in oxymoronic dialogue in this case because they do not really agree with the majority opinion or its rationale. On the one hand, they say that a nine-year-old killer should not be tried as an adult killer, yet, on the other hand, by joining the majority opinion they accept the fact as proved by the murderer’s own statements and the opinions of the doctors who examined him that he knew exactly what he was doing and they are content to remand to the trial judge to determine in a proper analysis whether this child should be treated as a juvenile or an adult.
The Chief Justice, in the absence of a public policy statement by us or the legislature, concludes for the majority that this matter be remanded to the trial judge to determine, within the parameters of the Juvenile Act, whether this nine year old is amenable to treatment, supervision and rehabilitation. But if the propriety of trying a nine year old for murder is in doubt then why waste everyone’s time by a remand which will only raise more questions. What happens if the trial judge properly concludes that this nine year old is not amenable to treatment, *317supervision and rehabilitation? Do we then try him as an adult for murder of the first degree? And if he is convicted, do we give him the death penalty or mandatory life imprisonment and keep him incarcerated for the next 50, 60 or 70 years or more?
I do not agree with the concurring justices in their attempt to legislate in this matter in the guise of expounding public policy. The law is presently clear and we must apply it. If public policy should be otherwise, then let the legislature come to grips with the problem and change the statute.