51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ

With the majority of the young men he believes beat and kicked a Rancho High School student to death already behind bars, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has some decisions to make.

Eight Las Vegas high school students between the ages of 13 and 17 years old were arrested on murder charges in the beating death of a schoolmate that was captured on cellphone video and widely share across social media.

In two weeks, students will return to classes at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ.

One June day in 1964, Gerald Gault and a teenage friend made a bad decision. They made an obscene phone call to Ora Cook, Gault’s neighbor. She called the police, and both boys were arrested and taken to a juvenile detention facility in Gila County.

Today, if you’re under 18 and charged with a crime, your case will likely be decided, and punishment meted out, through a legal system designed for minors. But until the beginning of the 20th century, kids under the age of 18 were tried — and jailed or imprisoned — alongside adults. That is, until the world’s first juvenile court was established right here in Chicago in 1899.

The U.S. is the only country in the world that sentences people to die in prison for offenses committed while under the age of 18.

The case is a half-century old this week, a landmark decision that merged jurisprudence, common sense and fortunate timing to reshape juvenile justice and give children many of the same due process rights long held by adults charged with crimes.

Until 1899, children in trouble with the law appeared in the same courtrooms as adults — and often received similar sentences. But that year, Illinois authorized the Juvenile Court Act, which established a court in Chicago only for youths under 16.