Nathaniel Abraham Trial: 1999

Although Nathaniel was charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors asked Judge Eugene A. Moore to allow the jury to consider lesser offenses. Moore did so, and on November 16, 1999, the jury found Nathaniel guilty of second-degree murder. He was believed to be the youngest American ever convicted of murder as an adult. Moore had three options for the sentence. The harshest was a prison term of 8 to 25 years. Prosecutors favored a more moderate, "blended" sentence: Nathaniel would go to a juvenile detention center, and then be reviewed between the ages of 18 and 21 to see if he had been rehabilitated. If so, he would be released. If not, he would go to an adult prison after turning 21. Moore, however, surprised the prosecutors by choosing the most lenient sentence. He ruled that Nathaniel be sent to a maximum-security juvenile detention center until the age of 21, and then freed.

As he handed down his sentence, Moore attacked the harsh Michigan juvenile justice law. The state, he said, "has responded to juvenile criminal activity not by helping to prevent and rehabilitate." However, most Michigan lawmakers and prosecutors continued to support the law. And across America, no states seemed ready to change their own statutes, even as some experts questioned their benefits.