Credit: Washington Examiner
Maryland Democrats are pushing an interesting bill. They are trying to push a bill that would prevent anyone under the age of 25 from being charged with felony murder.
Democratic Del. Charlotte Cruchfiled introduced into the Maryland General Assembly the Youth Accountability and Safety Act. This act would prohibit a person younger than 25 years old from being convicted of first-degree murder under the state’s felony murder provisions.
Under those felony murder provisions, murder is classified as being in the first degree if it was committed during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of several specified crimes, such as rape, arson, robbery burglary, carjacking, and other serious offenses.
With Cruchfield’s new proposal, anyone under the age of 25 who murders someone while trying to commit one of these crimes wouldn’t be charged with first-degree murder. First-degree murder is a crime in Maryland that carries life imprisonment with or without the possibility of parole.
Many people are against this bill, arguing that the effects of this proposal becoming law could be devastating.
“If this bill passes, you’re going to have kingpins, you’re going to have gangs use juveniles to do their dirty work,” Republican Del. Susan McComas told local Fox affiliate WBFF.
Law enforcement expressed their concerns, as well.
“The solution is not changing the law to excuse or to make excuses for the violator,” said Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler.
“The process that needs to be in place is to hold that person accountable.”
Governor Wes Moore’s pick to run the Juvenile Justice Service, Vincent Schiraldi, has said that no one under the age of 21 should be introduced to the justice system because their brains aren’t fully developed.
Republican opponents counter that Democrats only use mental capacity when it comes to crime policies. Republican Del. Susan McCommas said that Democrats are too soft on crime.
“Proponents of the bill say that the human brain is not fully formed in the frontal lobes until age 25,” said McComas.
“But yet, we’re doing other things in the general assembly, letting children vote earlier and earlier, letting them get hormone inducing drugs to change their sex.”
McComas believes if the bill passes it will lead to a spike in crime.
“If this bill passes, you’re going to have kingpins, you’re going to have gangs use juveniles to do their dirty work.,” said McComas.
Maury Richards, a law enforcement expert and former police chief in Martinsburg, W. Va., added that there is “a crime wave of violence going on right now,” but that “we’re hung up on whether 25-year-olds should be charged with murder.
Five cities in Maryland currently allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections.
Another area in Maryland is pushing to lower the voting age in Howard County, where the Board of Education is composed of eight members, including one reserved for a student elected by their classmates in grades six through 11. Sixth graders are usually 11 or 12 years old.
