A Texas law may have saved the Santa Fe school shooter's life, making parole possible for the 17-year-old being held in jail for the murder of 10 people, USA Today reported.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis opened fire on a Houston-area high school Friday morning, when he shot and killed eight students and two teachers and injured 10 more.
He later confessed to the killings, after he was taken into custody, and was charged as an adult with capital murder and aggravated assault on a peace officer.
In Texas, 17-year-olds are considered to be adults when they commit crimes and charged accordingly, however, according to USA Today, Pagourtzis may evade the death penalty thanks to the 2005 high court ruling banning the execution of criminals younger than 18.
Furthermore, a 2012 ruling about juveniles facing life in prison means that the school shooter may be eligible for parole after 40 years.
There have been ongoing campaigns to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18 in the legal system, The Marshall Project noted.
Michael Radelet, a University of Colorado at Boulder sociology professor who has testified in more than 75 death-penalty cases, explained that the idea is that those 17 and younger "don’t have the cognitive development to appreciate right from wrong," according to USA Today.
"Cases like this that are especially violent and an enigma make some people think they are more deserving of death, but the ruling is about the development of the juvenile brain," he said.
Radeleet noted that it was "wrong" to say this Pagourtzis could not be held responsible for his.
"Forty years is a tough row to hoe, and even then a parole board might not agree he’s not totally damaged or able to make a satisfactory transition into the community in 2058," he added.
Dr. David Fassler, a psychiatry professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine who has testified before legislative committees on brain development for other cases, said there may be a link between the immaturity levels of teenage brains and the crimes they may commit.
"It doesn't mean adolescents can't make a rational decision or appreciate the difference between right and wrong," he said, according to ABC News.
"It does mean, particularly when confronted with stressful or emotional decisions, they are more likely to act impulsively, on instinct, without fully understanding or analyzing the consequences of their actions."
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