RE “JURY convicts Odgren of murder’’ (Page A1, April 30): In the murder conviction of a youth who happens to be diagnosed with all sorts of mental disabilities, the real crime is that states like Massachusetts no longer consider the fact that adolescents are not adults. For certain crimes, juvenile status is all too simply ignored. It is ignored because of the politically inspired belief that juveniles are just as competent as adults. We know that they are not. A modern, civilized society such as ours requires proof of age-graded responsibilities in all sorts of spheres of life, from marriage to employment.
Massachusetts once was a leader in recognizing adolescence as a distinct period of life by creating its separate system of juvenile justice, which became a model for many states. But today many states including Massachusetts bypass juvenile justice in favor of adult criminal justice. States all too often assume that the unfortunate loss of one life requires the life of another no matter how young the offender may be. But a life sentence for a juvenile, when contrasted with that for an adult, means that a larger proportion of a juvenile’s life will be wasted away in prison.
The constitutionality of this kind of state-sponsored cruelty is being considered by the US Supreme Court. Massachusetts should begin to recognize the injustice of punishing its juveniles as if they are adults, and once more become the leader that it once was in creating an age-appropriate system of juvenile justice.
Simon I. Singer
Brookline
The writer is a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University. 
