A New York judge got tough with a 15-year-old boy convicted of mugging a 73-year-old man, sentencing him for 2 to 6 years in juvenile detention. The judge said he would have given the boy the same 1 to 4 year state prison sentence as a youthful offender that he gave his accomplice if he had taken responsibility for the crime rather than taking back his initial confession. Because the boy with the 2 to 6 year sentence was not convicted as a youthful offender, his crime — unlike that of his accomplice — will stay on his record after he serves his time. [More]
