Juvenile

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 07-30290 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  D.C. No.

CR-05-00054-SEH

JUVENILE MALE,

OPINION

Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana Sam E. Haddon, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted April 7, 2008—Seattle, Washington

Filed September 10, 2009

Before: Stephen Reinhardt, A. Wallace Tashima, and M. Margaret McKeown, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Reinhardt

13109 13132 UNITED STATES v. JUVENILE MALE

COUNSEL

Anthony R. Gallagher, Federal Defender, District of Montana, for the defendant-appellant.

William W. Mercer, United States Attorney; Richard A. Hos- ley, United States Attorney, for the plaintiff-appellee United States of America. UNITED STATES v. JUVENILE MALE 13133

OPINION

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:

As a society, we generally refuse to punish our nation’s youth as harshly as we do our fellow adults, or to hold them to the same level of culpability as people who are older, wiser, and more mature. The avowed priority of our juvenile justice system…