US attorney pushes for teen accused of killing Newark officer to be tried as an adult
Alina Habba says her goal is to have the teen convicted and then face a harsher prison sentence than he would as a juvenile.
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New Jersey’s new interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba is pushing to have a 14-year-old Newark teen tried as an adult for the killing of a Newark police officer.
The teen is accused of fatally shooting Newark Sgt. Joseph Azcona, as the officer sat in his car last month.
Habba’s goal is to have the teen convicted and then face a harsher prison sentence than he would as a juvenile. Habba says she wants to circumvent a New Jersey law that says a 14-year-old can’t be tried as an adult in federal court.
“This is the way it should be. If you shoot a police officer, if you shoot anyone - I don’t care what your age is. If you’re part of a gang and you have a repeated history of crime, you will be tried as an adult,” Habba said during an interview Thursday morning.
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However, Habba doesn’t have the power to move the case to adult court. It will be up to a federal judge.
Rutgers Law professor Laura Cohen disagrees with Habba’s attempt to move the case. She notes that there’s a misconception that the teen would receive a light sentence.
“Juvenile court does not mean that children escape accountability. It does not mean they escape incarceration,” Cohen says. “They could be subjected to incarceration as long as 20 years.”
Cohen says one of the reasons state law dictates that no one under 15 can be tried as an adult is because it has proven to fail.
“Children tried in the adult system are much more likely to offend again once released,” Cohen says.
She says studies have shown that children in the juvenile system are rehabilitated with mental health support and education and are less likely to get in trouble with the law.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin has weighed in on this matter. He is pushing a change in the law which sees teens tried as adults if they take the life of a police officer.
