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In California a referendum approved by 62% of voters last year requires that juveniles as young as 14 be tried as adults in murder cases. Prop. 21 will probably seal Williams' fate. One part of the new law was blocked in February, when an appeals court ruled that prosecutors had been granted too much power to send kids to adult court. But even if the state supreme court upholds the law, some lawyers from both sides of the aisle hope a compromise will be found somewhere between no judicial discretion and too much. Says attorney William La Fond, who challenged Prop. 21 in court: "In the old scheme, the defendant would get out when he was 25 years old. Prop. 21 says, 'Throw him in prison forever, no questions asked.' We need to ask if there's a middle ground." Determining whether a child is young enough to redeem himself may not be a numerical equation.
--By Amanda Ripley. With reporting by David S. Jackson/Los Angeles