You note that "In both cases the sentencing judges were certain these boys were beyond hope or help," a comment that reminded me of Joe Sullivan's recent article "All Locked Up," where he comments that the judge in Sullivan "wanted it to be 'perfectly clear to everyone that when he (Sullivan) gets out again and he commits any more offenses, he'll not be a juv! enile offender. Hopefully, he will be an old man.' If the judge meant to sentence Sullivan to life in prison without parole, why did he mention his release?"

Was the judge in Sullivan really so "certain"?

If the judge in the Sullivan case didn't 'mean' to sentence him to life without parole, but did so accidentally, that makes the judgment even more heinous.