Vocab - juvenile

Question 1

-Mitigate

Answer 1

• to lessen the gravity of an offense or mistake
• Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer who represents the boys in both of these cases, will make two basic arguments before the Supreme Court. The first is that a mandatory punishment of life without parole for a 14-year-old is cruel and unusual punishment because the defendant’s age and background are irrelevant and cannot mitigate punishment.

Question 2

Culpable

Answer 2

• deserving of blame
• Defense lawyer Stevenson notes that the American legal system treats minors as both less culpable and less responsible.

Question 3

Rehabilitate

Answer 3

• (verb): to restore (someone) to health or socially accepted behavior through training and therapy
• But it’s premature, excessive and unfair to say we know this juvenile will never be rehabilitated.

Question 4

Concise

Answer 4

• (adjective): giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive.
• (In the article, a “brief” is defined as a concise legal statement or summary.)

Question 5

Retribution

Answer 5

• (noun): punishment inflicted on someone as revenge for a wrong or crime
• Neiman notes that 38 of the 50 states authorize life without parole for a 14-year-old convicted of murder, and the federal government authorizes it for 15-year-olds. Part of the justification for that, he observes, is the notion of retribution.

Question 6

Egregious

Answer 6

• (adjective): outstandingly bad; shocking.
• [I]f a person commits a sufficiently egregious crime, then they just deserve a very severe sentence[.]

Question 7

Circumstantial

Answer 7

• (adjective): pointing indirectly toward someone’s guilt but not conclusively proving it.
• (This word doesn’t appear in the article, but it is used in one of the wrong answers for one of the questions. It might be used like this: We’ll have to rely on circumstantial evidence because there were no eyewitnesses and no video footage.)

Question 8

Indicative

Answer 8

• (adjective): serving as a sign or indication of something.
• (This word doesn’t appear in the article either. But it is also in one of the multiple-choice answers. It might be used like this: The fact that I don’t sleep well is not necessarily indicative of an underlying anxiety problem.)

Question 9

Modicum

Answer 9

• (noun): a small quantity or amount of a particular thing, especially something considered desirable or valuable.
• If there’s anyone who still has a modicum of redemption left in their life, it’s a juvenile.

Question 10

Redemption

Answer 10

• (noun): a) the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil. b) the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.
• If there’s anyone who still has a modicum of redemption left in their life, it’s a juvenile.