Homicide Case Against Boy Rouses Punishment Debate

"The act is just as bad as if it was committed by someone who is 17 or 21," said Robert F. Horan Jr., Fairfax County commonwealth's attorney. "What standards do you apply to him? It's a tough question, and I'm not sure anyone has a good answer."

The boy is accused of bludgeoning and stabbing his mother, Katrina Denise Powe, 31, and brother, Mystery Toma Hillian, 9, in their Forestville apartment. He is not being named by The Washington Post because he is a juvenile.

FBI statistics point to 5,233 children age 14 and younger who committed homicides across the nation between 1976 and 2002, accounting for 0.9 percent of all killers, according to an analysis by Brian Wiersema, a researcher with the Violence Research Group at the University of Maryland.

There were 64 children who committed murder in the D.C. metropolitan region during that time. The study did not examine what happened to the youths after the killings.

It is even more infrequent for children 12 and younger to commit murder. Over the studied period, that group consisted of 990 children, or 0.2 percent of all murderers. Fifteen were in the D.C. region.

The last known case in the region occurred in 2003, when a 12-year-old Rockville girl fatally stabbed her 15-year-old brother after they fought over whose turn it was to use the telephone. A judge ordered her held in a juvenile facility for treatment after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter. For the same crime, an adult would face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Even as juvenile crime has fallen, most states have continued to crack down on child offenders, enacting strict legislation and zero-tolerance policies. From 1992 through 1997, 44 states and the District passed laws making it easier for juveniles to be tried as adults.

Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey argues that Maryland needs to get tougher. In an interview last week, he proposed creating a hybrid system that would have a blend of juvenile and adult criminal sanctions for the most egregious offenders.

So far, 15 states have such systems. Like Maryland, neither Virginia nor the District has one.

"We really do need to get a handle on the big picture, on the direction of where we are going to go with violent juvenile offenders," Ivey said.

But many child advocates say that the falling number of murders by children is a key reason why violent juveniles should not be punished as adults. And they question whether very young offenders are mature enough to know that they are doing something wrong.

"The likelihood that this child is as blameworthy or as culpable as an 18- , 20- , or 30-year-old is silly," Levick said.