NPR: Murder Trial (arraignment)

ANNOUNCER
In the decision not to try two Wenatchee 12-year-olds, charged with first—degree murder, as adults, the issue was rehabilitation versus retribution. Diane De Rooy reports.

DIANE
Last summer’s murder of farmworker Emilio Pruneda forced a hearing to decide if the juveniles should stand trial as adults. John Duncan and Manuel Sanchez are accused of shooting Pruneda to death, after hunting him down and surrounding him on the west bank of the Columbia River.

If the children had been tried as adults, they could have been sentenced to at least 20 years in adult correctional facilities. Teachers, therapists and juvenile justice workers pleaded for rehabilitation of the boys, rather than warehousing them in adult facilities.

Penny Hoiland, of Chelan County Juvenile, said simple incarceration would guarantee these children would never be rehabilitated.

Hoiland testified that the juvenile justice system would teach values, anger management and social skills, in addition to providing regular education and vocational training. Hoiland wants to see Duncan and Sanchez have a last chance to be children within the structure of the juvenile system.

She’s philosophical about the murder. She says Emilio Pruneda died to save these two children.

For Northwest Public Radio, I’m Diane De Rooy.