Seven-deadly-sins law

The seven-deadly-sins law for juvenile offenders is a law intended to address the increasing rates of violent crime among youth.^[1] The law has taken many forms in different state legislatures in the United States, however the "seven deadly sins" aspect always refers to the jurisdiction of the superior court over the trial of any juvenile 13–17 years old who allegedly committed murder, rape, armed robbery with firearm, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, or voluntary manslaughter.^[2][3] In the mid 1990s, numerous US states enacted seven-deadly-sins laws to combat so-called teen "superpredators," a predicted wave of remorseless teenaged criminals. However, this prediction did not come to fruition.^[3]

Among the states in the US to pass such a bill was Georgia,^[1][2][4] whose State Bill 440 attempted "to provide that certain juvenile offenders who commit certain violent felonies shall be tried as adults in the superior court."^[4] However, in 2009, a bill softened the effects of that law, regressing from the default to try violent minor offenders as adults.^[3]

In April, 1994, the law was passed in the U.S. state of Georgia and means that the crimes of murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated sodomy and aggravated child molestation carry a minimum of 10 years in prison, with the latter four crimes carrying a minimum of 25 years to life in prison. First-degree murder is punishable by death, life in prison without parole or life in prison with no parole for at least 30 years, while second-degree carries a sentence of imprisonment for not less than 10 years and up to 30 years. Any person convicted a second time of any of these crimes will automatically be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The law went into effect on January 1, 1995.

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