Veteran Prosecutor Takes On City's Worst Juvy Offenders
A veteran prosecutor in Tennessee known nationally for her victims’ rights advocacy is shifting her energy to prosecuting Nashville’s worst juvenile offenders.
For 51-year-old Kathy Morante, the new direction in her prosecutorial career has been a challenge, the Tennessean reports.
“It’s already been very frustrating,” Morante tells the paper. “There’s no satisfaction in that I am putting a child away—a 15-year-old, a 17-year-old—for the rest of their life.”
Morante, who did the brief writing in the landmark victims’ rights case Payne v. Tennessee, says she remains motivated to give the victims a sense of justice.
“I’m not going to be able to solve the problem of a why a 14-year-old walks in a market and shoots the market owner,” Morante is quoted saying. “The most I can do is give the victim some sense of justice.”
