One difficulty in dealing with people under the age of 16, and the minimum sentence for them.... I don't know how common it is for people of that age to be involved in kidnapping, but let us drop the age from 16 to 14 or to 13. Does that change the mosaic, if that's the right word? It's hard to imagine a 12-year-old being involved in a kidnapping, but it's possible; we have seen strange things happen. Then the question arises of should a 12-year-old involved in a kidnapping be required to serve a minimum sentence of five years? Is his degree of guilt comparable to that of someone approaching adulthood at age 16? I don't know the answer to that, but for me talking about “under 16” raises a question: how far under 16?
On May 15th, 2012. See this statement in context.