Dan Rodricks: Adult at age 18? At 21? It’s what we expect, not what happens

In the 25 years since they were first uttered, I’ve never forgotten the words of a criminal defendant in Baltimore County Circuit Court: “I keep thinking maybe I could have done something more. But I’m only 21. How much could I do?” The guy who said that was one of three people charged in a horrible child abuse case. He lived in a house with his girlfriend, the girlfriend’s mother and two girls, one 9 and one 15. The three adults were all convicted of the second-degree murder of the younger girl.