(From the DA years)

A few years ago, 11-year old Miriam White stabbed and murdered a 55-year old hairdresser with a steak knife.  Both White and her victim did not previously know each other.  White said that the reason why she killed the victim was to get out of her foster home.  White had been abused and sexually assaulted by her birth parents.  The foster parent that she had been assigned to also gave up on her.  She was a mentally and emotionally disturbed girl. 

In prison, White tried to stab her tutor with a pencil, threw her excrement at the prison guards, and expressed her desire to kill other people along with other disturbing actions.  Under Pennsylvania law, she will be tried as an adult, but will probably not receive the death penalty.  White is currently 17-years old as she is still awaiting trial. 

My questions include the following: 

What is the appropriate penalty for someone like Miriam White? 

Can someone like her be redeemed and rehabilitated? 

How does God look at situations like this? 

Why aren’t we as Christians doing more to address these problems?

(I know this is rhetorical.  As a senior pastor put it at our past missions conference, our primary goal is to worship God, then service will follow.  Although that statement is theologically sound, it seems like a cop-out answer or excuse more often than not.)