A Democratic delegate proposed a law in Maryland that would bar anyone under 25 years of age from being charged with felony murder.
Delegate Charlotte Crutchfield, a Democrat, made the proposition through the Youth Accountability and Safety Act, House Bill 1180, local news outlet WBFF reported. A defendant in Maryland can be charged with felony murder if the person commits a murder during a felony crime, such as robbery.
Crutchfield and supporters of the bill say that the brain is not fully developed before age 25, so issuing so harsh a sentence is unfair.
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"We don't allow children under 18 to do a myriad of other things under the law," state Sen. Jill Carter, who sponsored a companion bill, told the outlet.
The bill was immediately decried by Republicans and law enforcement officials, who argued that it would result in a surge in crime.
“Proponents of the bill say that the human brain is not fully formed in the frontal lobes until age 25. But yet, we’re doing other things in the General Assembly, letting children vote earlier and earlier, letting them get hormone-inducing drugs to change their sex," Republican Delegate Susan McComas said.
“If this bill passes, you’re going to have kingpins. You’re going to have gangs use juveniles to do their dirty work," she continued.
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Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler echoed McComas's message in his own criticism.
“The solution is not changing [the] law to excuse or to make excuses for the violator. The process that needs to be in place is to hold that person accountable," the sheriff said.