Sarah Kruzan was recently sentenced to life without parole at the age of 16. She was found guilty of premeditated murder of her pimp who groomed her into prostitution from the age of 11. You can listen to Sarah’s story below as she shares from prison.
After you watch the video, please consider responding to some of the following questions:
- Do you believe that justice was served in this case? (Understandably, we don’t have all of the information on this case. Nevertheless, what are you initial thoughts?)
- What role should the capacity for change play in the life of juvenile sentencing?
- Should Sarah have been sentenced at all?
- Who is the victim in this case?
Look forward to hearing your thoughts. I’m currently looking into whether people are doing anything about this case. First, I think I need to learn more about the case. More to come…
Side Note: Organizations like the National Center for Youth Law are working on Juvenile Justice reform, especially for cases such as this. Here’s their vision as stated on their website:
NCYL works to ensure that youth in trouble with the law are treated fairly and appropriately for their age and capacity to change. NCYL promotes reforms that keep youth from entering the juvenile justice system, and also strives to protect the safety and welfare of youth in custody.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life without Parole for Killing Pimp – Justice? Watch the interview at – http://bit.ly/1lKCqD
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life w/o Parole for Killing Pimp – Justice? Interview >> http://bit.ly/1lKCqD << via @charlestlee #trafficking
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Interesting, sad post from @charleslee http://bit.ly/VAHqz
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Sheeeeesh,
She is now 29?! what a heart wrenching story.
The statistics were jarring; so many thousands of kids sentenced to life without. I know I voted against the 3 strikes addendum that was under scrutiny last election because I have spent enough time in juvenile centers and prisons to see that once you take away HOPE. wow, your screwed.
hope you keep us updated.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
RT @charlestlee: 16 Year Old Sentenced to Life without Parole for Killing Pimp – Justice? Watch video interview: http://bit.ly/1lKCqD // wow
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Blog Update 16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?:
Sarah Kruzan was recen.. http://bit.ly/10a88k
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Currently reading: 16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice? http://bit.ly/1lKCqD (via @charlestlee)
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Is this Justice? 16 year old sentenced to life w/o parole for murdering her pimp – http://bit.ly/1lKCqD
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
RT @charlestlee: Is this Justice? 16 year old sentenced to life w/o parole for murdering her pimp – http://bit.ly/1lKCqD WOW (LV)
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
I beleive each case should be judged on an individual basis taking into account the circumstances and history. This case on first impression did not merit a life sentence. While I think there were two victims here and a sentence should have been handed down, based on what I just watched and heard I beleive she may be ready for a second chance.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
This is so much more than “should a child be sentenced life for murder”. This is child trafficking.
She was in slavery. This is a huge issue that seems to go unnoticed. She should not have been sentenced at all. She should have immediately received love and care for what she ha gone through. She was the victim.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
I feel it’s a tragedy for young kids to ruin their lives in this way. However, I am not so sure that we can blame the judge, the criminal system, etc. I once spent a year volunteering for a prison ministry. I was paired up with a 16-year old who was sentenced was sentenced at the age of 14 for double homicide. In his case, it was a drive-by shooting that resulted in the deaths of two innocent people. The sentence was two 20-year sentences with 29 years w/o possibility parole.
I hesitate cause I may come off as seeming heartless. But, so many young people like this young lady and the guy I met, realize the gravity of their crimes in prison. Murder 1 is premeditated, no matter who the victim was. (Remember that these crimes are a crime against society, not against the victim. So in that sense I understand the sentence.) In prison, it seems that hindsight is always 20/20.
I’ve seen first hand the numbers of overcrowded youth prisons. However, maybe the problem is not the system. Let’s talk about the role of the church in being a real transforming agent in the world. Let’s address portrayal of violence in our society. Let’s identify at-risk kids in the schools and communities, and let’s plan a course of action that will attack the problem, before they go to prison for the rest of their lives.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
I was certainly disturbed by this video, but confused by the set-up. Your lead in said, “Sarah Kruzan was recently sentenced to life without parole at the age of 16.” In the video she said she is 29? Which is it?
I am not opposed to life and even death sentences for certain young people who show no remorse or callousness toward the lives of others. That does not seem to be the case here.
This seems to be a young woman worthy of a second chance and I would hope that perhaps the governor could intervene and offer her a pardon. I assume that is an option.
Justice should be tempered with mercy when possible.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Thanks for your comments everyone. I’m still processing this myself. There are so many layers of thought running through me about this case.
Yes, she is now 29 years of age. 13 years in prison already.
Yes, I believe she is a victim of trafficking. I wonder if the court would have been more knowledgeable if it had been a case today with more information about human trafficking and prostitution.
…still thinking… appreciate the feedback.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
@amycarolwolff blogged about this at http://bit.ly/1lKCqD – thnx for the link
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Great conversation going on here. So what can we do to raise awareness about issues like this? Thanks to incredible organizations like International Justice Mission, TraffickFree, Not For Sale Campaign, Call and Response, Invisible Children, to name a few, we have access to information on how to take steps towards protecting the lives of people like Sarah.
As a woman, I find it devastating to think about the first moments her innocence was robbed from her. What kind of anger, thus planning, went into creating the plan to take this man’s life? Who helped her? Who were the players? I couldn’t get it out of my mind…what is her understanding, if any, of a loving and just God? Does she see how He delights in her?
This touches on so many different levels of conversation, it’s overwhelming: psychology, policy, information flow, advocacy, sociology, sense of self and passion. But in the end of this, I find myself yelling, “did they not get it?!?! This man stole her life LONG before she took his.” Not that that justifies killing, and she sees that…but…can we have a system that fights for such a life as this little girl…who has not had the chance to experience freedom from the age of 11?
This leaves me angry.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Well articulated Amy… good questions.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
RT @charlestlee : Is this Justice? 16 year old sentenced to life w/o parole for murdering her pimp – http://bit.ly/1lKCqD
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
I am at a loss for words after watching her story and confused by the judge’s harsh sentencing. Did he not know the circumstances which led to her taking this man’s life (more appropriate would be to call him garbage) and what she must have gone through for 5 years??
Maybe someone can answer this next questions for me, if the judge gave her life in prison w/out parole for murder, did he also decide to punish the mother for allowing this to happen??? Where was the police when she was out at night at 11 and 12 years old, standing at street corners? Where was the school system when this 13 yr old was out all night, did no one notice her tired, withdrawn, etc?? What about CPS???
Have we become so caught up in our own little world not to notice what is going on in front of us anymore? As adults we should not be afraid to speak up in the defense of a child, even if we may be wrong. Better to err on the side of caution and be wrong than to watch a child have her life taken away from her by the scum of the earth.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Wow! This is a tough one. However, as a previous post said, I don’t want to seem heartless, but murder is murder. No matter how horrible a person’s conditions are, the extremes are never enough to justify taking another person’s life.
The pimp definitely should have paid for his trafficking ring, and if he was alive and convicted, perhaps he should have gotten life in prison or worse. But it’s not up to us to issue that judgement. We can issue the verdict, but the punishment is left to the judge.
I guess the upside to her punishment , if there is one, is she didn’t get the death penality.
The Apostle Paul spent the latter part of his life in prison and made the most of it. He did the most good he could possibly do in his bind and preached the Gospel to as many as hecould possibly reached. Was his imprisonment justified? Well, according to the laws of his day, it was. He accepted it and trusted in God.
My heart pours out for Sara. It’s one of those situations that totally sucks. Her innocence was taken away, her mother did a crappy job, and she was manipulated by a horrible man.
Just like Charles, I, too, am still processing this whole situation.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
This doesn’t seem very tough to me. A little girl was raised by an abusive mother who was a drug addict, and her innocence was stolen away at a young age when she was forced into prostitution & statutorily raped by the man who did it. And according to her, he had done this many times before, because he ‘had’ other girls. At 16, she felt the only way out was to kill the man who had made her life this way. Should she have been punished-yes. Should she have the rest of her life taken away-I don’t believe so.
But I am not the system, nor would I want to be. Because this same system recently found Dante Stallworth guilty of vehicular homicide & DUI, yet he was sentenced to 30 days. Why? One can only wonder. So I don’t think putting the life of a tortured child, who did not ask nor deserve to be brought into the life she was, into a system such as this should be acceptable anymore.
I like to put myself into a situation before I respond to it’s outcome. So for those of you who don’t outwardly disagree with the outcome, would you feel like you deserved what Sarah got? Would you agree with someone saying to you ‘murder is murder’?
The bottom line for me is I’m glad there are 11 year-olds that can now go out where Sarah once did and not have to meet Gigi. I don’t trust the system enough to believe the situation would be the same had they had the opportunity to deal with it.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
I believe this is terrible, but I must admit some red flags go up and I have some questions:
How did she kill him?
Was it a gruesome murder?
Clearly I can see the remorse in her now
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
They say killing someone is unjust and unnecessary…but isnt there some circumstances that qualify as just? She was warped as a young girl and trained to sell her body. MY question is, had she of went to the police what would they have done?
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
HI I am 14 years old and i feel that even though no one has the right to take another life and that its wrong to kill anything . I also feel that what she did was good Sarah is someone’s child, and if someone was hurting me in the ways I can only think they were hurting her for one day let alone six years I would to kill that person to . You also should think what if it was your kid being rapped repentantly by different men everyday what would be your reaction. Think about how Sarah feel shes the one that has to deal with not having a good childhood and having to live with the fact that she was yet another young girl put into prostitution now she has to sit in jail for the rest of her life and think about how she killed some one as well I feel she should get a punishment for what she did but not life in jail , she should be able to try to have a chances at a real life not put into jail with real monsters.
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
This story was so sad.
That poor child was has been mentally tortured when she was abused and neglected by her mother and raped and trafficked by her pervert pimp…this alone is a life a sentence.
She was definatly the victim in this case.. i cant believe that she recieved a life sentence how cold of the judge. In my country she would have been named a hero for taking the life of a monster as it would of lessend the amount of children who are abducted, raped and trafficked.
My heart goes out to her, and if this was my field of work i’d be doing all i could to get her justice and free from prison!
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Wow!!!!!I feel that she should not be sentence to life without parole there are adults today that do crimes that the situation are way worst than this.Dont get me wrong im not saying that it alright to break the law of any crime but she was a child that was being rape………A CHILD i dont think its far for her to have spend the rest of her life in prisons.She has already done 13 yrs for the crime……My heart just go out out to her because it just seem so unfair………
16 Year Old Sentenced to Life for Killing Pimp – Justice?
Tuty,
I agree with your comment….I see remorse, however..the judge passed the sentence saying that this was an especially heinous crime, and felt she had no morals. The “heinous” part raises and eyebrow. I tried to find the details of the murder, but I couldnt. I welcome any insight from anyone here that could point me in the direction to those details. The reason I think thats important is because..if the crime was commited in a such a gruesome way, as to damage the mind, by desensitizing herself to such a horrific brutely killing…it is possible that she can’t trully come back from that. I dont know this to be true of her, and she certainly does not seem the brutaly killer, but one never knows. Until we know the circumstances of her crime, which seems to have played a big roll in her sentencing, we cant really say whether she deserves to be free. Either way I look at it though, certainly she is a victim, but is society safe with her in it? Can she control herself in the future? I think it depends on how she handled it the first time around…at least in part.