[ad_1]<\/p>\n
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) \u2013 <\/strong>It was the moment investigators had waited six years for. Finally, DNA evidence had linked a suspect to one of the city\u2019s most gruesome crimes.<\/a> One who, five years prior, had allegedly physically and sexually assaulted a five-year-old girl waiting for her school bus. On April 4, police arrested the suspect. He then confessed. Everything pointed towards charges and jail time, if not for a Minnesota law preventing it from ever happening.<\/p>\n Minnesota State Statute Chapter 609 Section 055 reads as follows:<\/a> <\/p>\n READ MORE: <\/strong>2 Hurt After Fight Turns Into Shooting In Brooklyn Park<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe overall philosophy of the juvenile justice system is and always has been a sense that juveniles cannot be held accountable in the same ways as adults,\u201d said former Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, who now works in private practice. \u201cThey\u2019re different. They are children.\u201d<\/p>\n In a release from the Ramsey County Attorney\u2019s Office, the office makes it clear they are unable to charge the suspect as an adult, despite them currently being 19. Instead, they have filed a delinquency petition, which could possibly lead to the suspect being listed as a sex offender for the rest of their life. Because they were 13 when the crime happened, the office cannot release the suspect\u2019s name, or make the results of their delinquency petition public.<\/p>\n \u201cAny time a system, a legal system, a criminal justice system, draws lines, there\u2019s going to be occasions where the result seems unfair,\u201d Gaertner said. \u201cIf you change the law any time you have an occasional outlier, then you\u2019re not going to have uniformity, you\u2019re not going to have rules that work most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: <\/strong>Man, 19, Dies In Hospital Weeks After Being Assaulted, Robbed In Downtown Minneapolis<\/a><\/p>\n Minnesota\u2019s law is not uncommon. Most states have similar rules preventing children of a certain age or younger from being tried for a crime. In California, the minimum age was raised to 16 in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the real world, 13-year-olds, 12-year-olds have no appreciation of the reality of the consequences, of the self-control, the susceptibility to peers, all of the kinds of things that every parent knows,\u201d said former University of Minnesota law professor Barry Feld.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason you have a rule, is because it\u2019s a rule. And if you have exceptions, it\u2019s not a rule,\u201d Feld said.<\/p>\n