Criminal age for murder may drop

The justice minister may consider changing the minimum age for criminal responsibility following the prison release of a man who murdered a young girl in 2004 when he was 13.

Daniela Kovářová said she would even consider abolishing the minimum legal age for a murder conviction.

"I would like to encourage an open debate about the age limit of criminal responsibility," she said, adding it was not just a question of a particular age.

"It is not just in the strict sense a matter of age, say 14 or 15, but, with the most serious crimes, especially murder, it might be better not to have a limit," Kovářová said.

"If we only move the criminal responsibility to 14 years [from the present 15], it means future cases could involve say 12- or 13-year-olds, and, if they commit murder, they will get a short sentence," she said

"The statistics we have available show at least one murder a year is committed by a person younger than 15. I have therefore decided to support the reopening of discussions on the age of criminal responsibility. I believe we should give judges a real tool to impose a lengthy jail term for the most serious cases of criminal acts by anyone, including a person younger than 15."

The minimum age for criminal responsibility ranges across the European Union from 8 in Scotland to 18 in Belgium. In England, campaigners are trying to raise it from 10 to 14.

Her comments came after residents in the Central Bohemian village of Kmetiněves organized a petition demanding the age be reduced or abolished following the 2004 murder of the young girl whose killer was just released.

"We learned that, as soon as he was 18, he could leave jail with a record as clean as the word of God," said the mayor of Kmetiněves, Ludek Kvapil.

Reducing the limit to 14 years was originally a part of the new Criminal Code that came into force Jan. 1. But the legislature decided to leave it at its current age of 15.

Western and Central Europe have a homicide rate of 1.5 per 100,000 people, while the United States has a rate of 6.1 per 100,000 people.

- Petr Cibulka Jr. contributed to this report.

Tom Clifford can be reached at
tclifford@praguepost.com