Detroit Public Radio: Deb LaBelle and others discuss juvenile prosecution

Demarco Harris and juvenile prosecution

Thursday, August 20, 2009

[audio:DT_8-20.MP3]

It’s midnight on August 1st and 24 year old Trisha Babcock is sitting in the driver’s seat of a parked car.  12 year old Demarco Harris points a loaded gun at Babcock and a struggle ensues.  Babcock is now dead of a gunshot wound to the chest…and Harris is charged with felony murder and armed robbery.  The Wayne County Prosecutors office has announced that Harris could be sentenced as an adult.

In the first hour of the show we will hear from guests on all sides of the spectrum.  Brian Murrow is Deputy Chief of the Wayne County juvenile division.  He will explain to us the technical process of juvenile prosecution.  Jennifer Bishop Jenkins is an academic and founder of IllinoisVictims.orgDeborah LaBelle is a civil rights lawyer and project director of Juvenile Life Without Parole Initiative.  Dwayne Betts is the author of A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival and Coming of Age in PrisonAl Taylor is founder of Peace Project