I'm 10, I killed you, what should happen to me? Options

[*NatiMarie*]

I had this in the death penalty question, but I think it's a different issue. What if they were younger than 12 or something and they committed a crime of this extent. What should be done to them?

Okay, what's I'm talking about...I should have specified, sorry is the Jamie Bulgar case.

The story is a three year old was brutally tortured and murdered by one 9-year old boy and a 10-year old boy. He was abducted and by a course of hours, died a terrible death. What should have happened to these boys?

Years later, at the age of 18 they were released from prison. Is that a suitable penalty?

EDIT//--from a website
Here's brief summary:
On February 12, 1993 a small boy who was to turn three in March was taken from a shopping mall in Liverpool by two 10 year old boys. Jamie Bulger walked away from his mother for only a second and Jon Venables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson. They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 and a half miles, along the way stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was crying constantly for his mommy. Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes and pushed batteries up his anus.

It was actually worse than this. What these two boys did was so horrendous that Jamie's mother was forbidden to identify his body. They then left his beaten small body on the tracks so a train could run him over to hide the mess they had created. These two boys, even being boys understood what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look like an accident. This week Lady Justice Butler-Sloss has awarded the two boys anonymity for the rest of their lives when they leave custody with new identities. We cannot let this happen. They will also leave early this year only serving just over half of their sentence. One paper even stated that Robert may go on to University. They are getting away with their crime. They need to pay, and we have to do something to make them pay for their horrific crime. They took Jamie's life violently away, and in return they get a new life.

[MissFits]

It depends on HOW they killed the people. If it was brutal they need to be in prison, at least until they are 20. At the age of 20 they should be up for parole.

I have a really morbid fascination with killers and a wide collection of books about them. The following information comes from "The Serial Killer Files" by Harold Schechter, although I am sure it can be found by simply googling the names. I will put anything mildly disturbing in a spoiler code.

Mary Bell was 11 years old when she started killing. She started assaulting other kids in 1968 when she beat up four younger children (it does not state their ages). Ten days later the body of 3 year old Martin Brown was found With blood and saliva oozing out of his mouth. She was excited and bragged pestered the mother endlessly. Two month later she murdered yet another 3 year old child They found his body between two cinder block, he had been sexually violated with a pair of scissors and the letter M was carved into his chest.. After being questioned she laughed about what she had done. Mary was sent to a girls home, which she was kicked out of in 2 years and sent to prison. In 1977 they transferred her to a less secure prison, from which she escaped. She was apprehended quickly. She was released from prison in 1980. She has committed no known crimes since her release.

Jesse Harding Pomeroy was 12 when he began assaulting other children. Over a 9 month reign of terror he lured an uncountable amount of children to woods where he bound, beat, and tortured them. After caught he was sent to reform school for less than 17 months. After being released he promptly commit a pair of appalling mutilation/murders on a 10 year old girl and a fourteen year old boy. At the age of 14 he was sentenced to death. A controversy soon erupted and his sentence was commuted to life. He lived until 1932 and spent over 40 years of his 60 year imprisonment in solitary confinement.

Sorry it was so long winded.