BATON ROUGE, La. — Senate Bill 2 seeks to amend the Louisiana Constitution, which, right now, lays out a list of 15 mostly violent crimes which could lead to a juvenile being charged as an adult.
Author Senator Heather Cloud wants that list removed from the constitution, and to give legislators the power to add more crimes to the list. It could lead to more 15 and 16-year-olds being charged as adults.
Senator Cloud says the landscape of juvenile crime has changed since the list was added to the constitution in the 70s, but when challenged on the Senate floor Thursday, couldn’t cite any specific statistics.
She also wouldn’t say what crimes she thinks should be added to the list, other than human trafficking.
Senator Royce Duplessis, when speaking with Senator Cloud on the house floor, asked, “What is the value of charging that person, that young person, as an adult? What do we gain?”
Sen. Cloud replied, “I think it depends on the crime. The most serious of crimes should have the most serious of consequences.”
Pointing at the current list of crimes in the constitution, Sen. Duplessis said, “Outside of this 15?”
“It depends on what it is. And of course, you’re bringing a hypothetical, but the endangerment to society, I mean, the list could go on and on,” Sen. Cloud said in response.
Cloud is also the author of a bill signed into law this spring which treats all 17-year-olds as adults in the Louisiana criminal justice system.
This bill — which would affect even younger teenagers — is on its way to the Louisiana House. If it passes there, Louisiana voters would see it on their ballot as a constitutional amendment.
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