The paradox of the law: murderers under the age of 14 “only sleep” in the centers where they are interned, otherwise they are free around the city

A new case of a minor under 13 participating in the commission of a serious crime – the stabbing of a taxi driver – makes former judge Cristian Danileț explain why he thinks it is necessary to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 13.

Danileț believes that the age limit for criminal liability must be lowered. PHOTO: Personal archive

The debate about the criminal responsibility of minors, a reaction to the case of Cenai, in which three minors brutally killed a friend, is fueled by another incident that produces emotion in public opinion.

The authorities in Mureș County arrested, the other day, two teenagers, 15 and 16 years old, after they beat and stabbed a 54-year-old taxi driver. With them was a 13-year-old boy, who will not be held criminally responsible due to his age.

In this context, former judge Cristian Danileț reports a similar case from 2018, when a driver from Lugoj was attacked by two teenagers who killed him, took his money, threw him into a forest and used his car until they ran out of gas.

“He will go out at some point and commit acts of the same kind, any one of us could be a victim”

“Being over 14 years old, the two could be convicted by Romanian justice“, says Danileț on his Facebook page.

The Timișoara Court of Appeal decided that one of the two minors should be sentenced to 9 years in the Craiova detention center for minors and was released on condition last year.

He tried three more times to be released, but was rejected on the grounds that he had hit a prisoner. However, he was rewarded 64 times, participated in social and educational programs, finished high school, took high school, became a student. The motivation can be read here.

The other received 10 years and 4 months of juvenile detention, but because of his past he agreed to serve the sentence in Arad Penitentiary. “From there, for about two years, he has been making requests for conditional release, but so far all have been rejected on the grounds that the kid does not respect the internal rules, he has been disciplined 31 times, he does not go to school, he does not want to work, he hit someone in the penitentiary”reports Danileț.

Specialists have determined that his risk of relapse is high. You can read all the motivation here. “Personally, I don't think he can ever be straightened out again. He'll go out at some point and do the same thing, any one of us could be a victim“, concluded the former judge.

The difference between the two: one was taken to a juvenile detention center, the other to a penitentiary. The latter remains, according to Danileț, a danger to society.

What does hospitalization in a specialized center mean for minors under 14: “they can do what they want”

“I'm going back to the case from a few days ago in Tg. Mureș: the minor who attacked with the knife is 13 years old. As the deed was premeditated, I'm sure that the older ones told him to be the one who attacked, because not being 14 years old he can't have a criminal record, so he can't be picked up by the police and taken to the magistrate, and the other two could have blamed him. However, what the two didn't know teenagers, is that in a case of murder, not only those who hit are responsible, but also those who hold the victim“, explains Danileț.

Even so, the law says that the delinquent under the age of 14 must be taken from the family by the DGASPC and taken to a specialized center. “Except that at that center he is not locked up, like the ones over 14: there he only has his personal things and sleeps, but he is free to go to school, he can go out in the city if he says where he is going and, in general, he can do what he wants, being obliged to attend some activities that have no concrete result in the direction of such children“, he explains.

In the context in which information appeared in the media according to which the three children were admitted to a DGASPC center prior to the act, Danileț says: “If this is confirmed, that the three planned a murder in the very institution that must expose them to such conduct….it's a nightmare!”

The former judge's conclusion: “Given the development of minors in recent decades, the increase in the number of violent acts committed by them, to which I add the impossibility of the state through the DGASPC to curb this kind of behavior in adolescents and adolescents, it is necessary to lower the age to have a criminal record from 14 to 13.”