When is it justified for a juvenile's crimes to receive adult punishment?
This is the question lawmakers and the UNM community are asking after the release of Mister Saunders.
In 2002, when Saunders was 13, he raped and killed a UNM student.
Saunders has been free since May 31 when he was released from custody at the Youth Diagnostic and Development Center.
Benny Mora Jr., then 15, was convicted of murder, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and conspiracy after attacking UNM Physician's Assistant student Melissa Albert in her apartment. Saunders was tried as a juvenile.
Mora, tried as an adult, is serving a 45-year sentence at the Penitentiary of New Mexico and will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 38 years of his sentence.
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Alumnus John Martin attended UNM when Albert was murdered and remembers the disruption it caused on campus. He said Saunders' crime deserved an adult punishment.
"The jail he went to shouldn't even be considered a jail," he said. "I do not think he was adequately punished for what he did."
Former Assistant District Attorney Gerald Byers said in a 2002 statement that Saunders and Mora had gone to Albert's home to help her move. Albert had decided to change apartments after her residence was burglarized while she was on vacation. The young men were later found responsible for the burglary.
According to court records the two had planned to kill Albert with a Taser gun. When the Taser failed to kill her, Mora held her wrists while Saunders grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her 13 times, then raped her twice as she died.
Saunders served eight years in YDDC, less than
one-fifth of the jail time of Mora.
The cutoff age for juvenile offenders to be tried as adults is 14, according to the New Mexico Children's Youth and Families Department Web site. Because Saunders was 13 at the time of the attack, he was given the maximum sentence, which allowed him to be released without supervision when he turned 21.
State Representative Bill O'Neill, former director of the juvenile parole board, said less than 50 percent of all released juvenile offenders complete their parole and end up back in correctional facilities.
"That (statistic) is not acceptable, for either the community at large or for the youths themselves," O'Neill said. "Effective supervision of released juveniles is critical."
Senior Sean Duffy said he is glad to see Saunders get a second chance at a successful life.
"When kids are that young they do not deserve to be held for 45 years in prison," he said. "Obviously he needs love, or why would he have committed that crime in the first place? He needs a second shot at life, with supervision, of course."
Duffy said punishing children as adults is not fair because every child's maturity level varies.
"The prison system is not very good, it is not a good place for kids," he said. "I think people should work with them, forgive them, love them and try to rehabilitate them."
Martin said since Saunders was mature enough to kill somebody at 13, then he should have been sentenced as an adult.
"The family of this girl should be outraged," he said. "It is wrong that they are letting this kid out. He shouldn't be let free. He should be moved to an adult facility."
