Minors and Murder

My response to a colleague's blog was Patrick Mendez's evaluation of minors accused of murder and the penalty involved. 

I completely agree with your opinion on the inability of the courts to charge minors to the full extent for murder. Is it really true that just because you are 18 years old that you all of a sudden have the maturity level to control their behavior? I don't remember being any more of an adult at 18 than I was at 16. The question arises of what would be a proper age limit to enforce life sentencing? I don't know that their is one. I believe every case of murder should be treated individually. The law that acts as a safety blanket for anyone under the age of 18 is ludicrous. Take the case of the group of teens in Queens, NY that ordered Chinese food delivery and beat the delivery man to death just for a free meal. Does the law really expect us to believe that these kids didn’t know what they were doing when they, no doubtfully, planned this, called in the order, waited for the food to get to their house and then beat this man to death with bricks? That’s a pretty far-fetched version of a child’s impulsive behavior. We were all teenagers at one point and have made mistakes. Some of us sneak our parents car out at night or skip school. How many of us go out in the world and kill? It is my belief that any child that is capable of murder at a young age is just the huge, glaring red flag that this individual will grow up to be a deeply disturbed and dangerous adult.