World
Canadian youth to face lighter sentencing
Ottawa | May 17, 2008 12:01:13 AM IST
Young people in Canada convicted of violent crimes won't routinely face adult sentences in the future, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. Canada's top court ruled 5-4 Friday that a section of the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act would no longer apply to violent crime cases since its adult sentencing guidelines violated young offenders' constitutional rights, the Canwest News Service said. The principle of fundamental justice at issue here is that young people are entitled to a presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness or culpability from the fact that because of their age, they have heightened vulnerability, less maturity and a reduced capacity for moral judgment, Justice Rosalie Abella wrote in the court's decision. That is why there is a separate legal and sentencing regime for them. The court's ruling also stuck down earlier provisions that required any young person facing criminal charges to provide adequate proof why their names shouldn't be publicized, the news service said. (UPI)
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