We have a new guest blogger here at Genpop.org, Brandi, who is a criminology student in Odessa, Tx. Here are the answers to the questions I posed to guest bloggers:

1.       Are there any circumstances under which you would support state sanctioned killing?
None that I can imagine at this point. I was asked this question this morning in my Law & Society class by a class mate, “you mean if your daughter was raped and murdered you wouldn’t want the person who did it to die?” My reply was that in that situation I wouldn’t have the ability to make a rational decision on the matter and that emotion shouldn’t play a role in determining the fate of another person. See 1st attachment.

2. Do you believe there are situations in which children should be tried as adults? If yes, which situations.
Laws surrounding this issue in Texas currently seem well thought out, but the age at which you can be tried as an adult varies from state to state – with some of them being ridiculous. I believe North Carolina permits it at age 7! If I were to say yes to this question it would be based on the individual. How close to 18 are they? Whether or not there were extenuating circumstances, if they had a long record of felonies, if animal abuse was a part of their history, if their crime “shocked the conscience,” if they seemed unable to be rehabilitated, then yes, I don’t think they should benefit from a clean slate at the age of 18. The death penalty needs to remain unconstitutional for those under 18, regardless of my overall opinion on the death penalty.

3. Name one thing that could change in the American Justice System that you think would make a massive difference in the public's safety and US crime rates.
My goal is to become a college professor with the privilege to remain gainfully employed, to further the Liberal Education of others, and – here’s the selfish part – to do research that can and hopefully WILL influence our state and federal legislators on editing current and creating new laws that BENEFIT everyone. I’m cautiously optimistic, willingly sounding cliché. To address the real question you’ve asked, however, the second attachment should cover it.

Brandi also writes for Amazon Cares and you can follow her on Twitter here: @TxCriMjr

I look forward to her first post! If you are interested in becoming a guest blogger here on Genpop.org, read the info posted at : http://www.genpop.org/2009/11/guest-bloggers-needed.html

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