Charlie Sykes: Sykes Writes

THURSDAY HOT READ: WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT VICTIM?

By Charlie Sykes

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Patrick McIlheran is apparently not oozing with the milk of human kindness over teenagers who rape elderly women.

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will be told that no young man can be as bad as Joe Sullivan, not even Joe Sullivan.

Sullivan was 13 when he broke into a house in Florida to rob it and, as long as he was at it, rape the 72-year-old woman living there. This came after 17 prior convictions for burglary, assault and such. A judge decided Sullivan was impervious to rehabilitation and, to protect Florida, sentenced him to life without parole.

This, justices will hear, was unconstitutional. Sullivan's lawyer will argue that it's cruel to decide a 13-year-old must be locked up forever. Groups that campaign on behalf of young criminals hope the court will rule such sentences impermissible. "You can never make that kind of judgment about a juvenile," wrote Sullivan's lawyer.

Never? Not even after 17 prior convictions? One seldom hears so pure an expression of the viewpoint. Rather, those advocating for the worst young criminals rest their arguments on the premise that an unduly harsh America is willy-nilly discarding children....