"Right now, in New York State, if you are brutalized, raped, and  killed, the penalty for taking your life is less if your predator is under a certain age. Whether young or old, a murderer is a murderer, and a sexual predator is a sexual predator."

-NYS Assemblywoman and "Penny's Law" Sponsor, Catharine Young

        "Youth is no excuse for murder, rape, or any violent crime.  To those people who feel compassion for the juveniles convicted, remember that juvenile killers and gang members make a choice to disregard the value of a life and should face the punishment they deserve. Victims like my husband did not have a choice.  The worst feeling is knowing I will never be able to see my husband again, yet one of his killers will be released from prison within three years.  I sometimes question where the justice is in the criminal justice system. I have to work each year to ensure that the younger of my husband's killers stays behind bars. Yet despite my efforts, the maximum sentence is nine years and his record will be sealed from the public for willfully taking someone's life. When he is released from prison, he may be your next-door neighbor; he may work with your children, and date your daughter. You will never know."

-Maggie Elvey, of Crime Victims United of California,

whose husband was murdered by two juveniles. 

        "The 14 and 15 year olds who are committing crimes are hardly innocent babies.  They’re street hardened criminals.  We don’t need to protect them.  We need to be protected from them.”

- Frank J. Clark, Erie County District Attorney

      "Our law needs to recognize that juveniles are capable of committing the most terrible of crimes, and therefore should be subject to the same level of accoutability as adults.  Though our law provides for the trial of juveniles in certain circumstances, our sentencing guidelines fail to provide for the necessary and just results."

-Matthew J. Murphy, Niagara County District Attorney

      "As you know, the maximum sentence for a juvenile offender now permitted is 9 years to life for the crime of murder, that, of course, is the sentence Edward Kindt received for the brutal murder of Penny Brown in Cattaraugus County.  That defendant by mere days escaped what would have been a much more appropriate sentence, that is 25 years to life.  We must trust in the ability of our judiciary to determine when a juvenile offender not only commits an adult act, but acts with adult rationale and adult intent.  In those cases, the judge should have the ability to sentence a juvenile offender to up to 25 years to life in prison.  After all, society needs to be protected for as long as possible from sociopaths, no matter what their age."

-James P. Subjack, Chatauqua County District Attorney

        "On April 19, Judge Moore sentenced Louis Marino III for killing my son, Jamie. At the time of the murder, Marino was 11 days short of his 16th birthday. Consequently, he was sentenced as a juvenile offender. If he had reached his 16th year, he would have been sentenced as an adult and he would have faced 25 years to life. Although the sentence he received is the maximum permitted by law, it falls significantly short of a sufficient punishment considering the permanency and heinous nature of his crime. Furthermore, there is a big disparity between the punishment given to someone 16 years or older and that of someone below the age of 16. In this particular case it does not seem reasonable to assume that someone in the last 11 days of their 15th year would suddenly gain an insight into the ramifications of their antisocial behavior or gain control over their destructive actions. If these attributes were not there in the earlier part of their 15th year, there is no evidence that it will develop in the fleeting days of that year. I suggest that if the moral judgment and self-control relating to the seriousness of a violent crime such as murdering someone is not present in individuals by the time they are in their early teens, chances are it will never develop. Nevertheless, a victim murdered by a 15 year old is just as dead as one killed by a 16 or 20 year old, and the victim’s families suffer just as much. Perhaps it is time for the State Legislature to consider lowering the age at which a person is tried and sentenced as an adult for such a devastating crime as murder. By so doing, the state would reaffirm the precious value of the lives of its law abiding decent citizens who become innocent victims of murder. After all, it was their lives that were permanently stolen from them by morally unrestrained and violent criminals."

-Alwin H. Warfel, Ph.D.

        "I think you've got people out there who are the worst predators in the country - and I've used that term knowing full well it's import - you've got some of the worst, most violent criminals who happen to be teenagers - who happen to be juveniles under the age of 18 and need to be taken off the streets.  The prosecutors and the public need to have the power to do that."

                            -United States Congressman Bill McCollum

        "Murder is murder, dead is dead, and if somebody has killed an individual then they don't belong in society. If a juvenile demonstrates that they can commit cold-blooded, heinous murder, the chances are they're going to do it again and again and again. It's time to look at the victims and their rights."

                                    -Senator Victor Crist, Tampa, FL

        "To infer that because a murderer is not yet an adult that it is 'okay' to change the rules of law and make excuses for him, is totally and absolutely obscene."

-Raymond Davis, Cornwall, NY

        "Juveniles today are murdering children and adults. 'Callous,' 'cold-blooded,' and 'killer' are words that describe some of today's youth. I know that juvenile crime is down, and that’s good; however, violent juvenile crime is up. This trend requires action, and that action is to stop treating the malicious killers like kids — treat them as adults. Those who think that a few years in prison will rehabilitate these young killers are only fooling themselves.  Releasing them after a few years is only asking for more trouble. These young killers have proven that they cannot be contributing members of society — why reinsert them? All that does is jeopardize the lives of more innocent people."

-Mike Kofron, journalist, Brown Daily Herald

         "Brutal crimes committed by minors are still brutal crimes and should be prosecuted as such."