The debate over how to punish killers who commit murder as juveniles fuels emotions. For many of the inmates, it's a matter of hope and what they see as fairness. Those who lost loved ones say it's a matter of justice. Here's a look at some of the most compelling quotes from both sides.

Voices of the inmates

• Raymond Gone, 27, who killed Denver police officer Shawn Leinen, on life without parole: "You're taking a child, a teenager, and just throwing them away. You're saying there's no hope for him, no chance for change, there's nothing he can do in the future to ever make up for what he or she did. That's wrong."

• Philip Trujillo, 28, convicted in the drive-by shooting that killed Lee Pumroy, the grandson of a former Colorado Supreme Court justice: "The worst part of prison is I'm stuck around all these criminals. I don't feel like I belong here."

On the person he was when he shot Pumroy: "I've changed. I wouldn't even recognize that person anymore."

• Joseph Hunter, 28, who killed Dorothy Woodham, an 86-year-old woman in his neighborhood: "My time really didn't hit me until the second year I was down. Before that, I didn't believe it. It didn't seem real. I thought appeals would turn it around.

"This is a never-ending sentence. My sentence stops when my heart stops. Period. When I actually dealt with that concept, man, it almost destroyed me. It really did."

• Marcus Clouatre, 30, who killed Douglas Sparr, 44, the son of a Denver federal court judge: "This ain't the life for a juvenile. It ain't the life for anybody, really."

"It's a long-term death penalty. You might as well put people to death. In a lot of ways, it would be more humane. It would save taxpayers more money. I would rather be put to death than serve natural life. I can't imagine spending the rest of my life in prison."

• Christopher Selectman-Bey, 28, who killed McKinley Dixon while trying to rob him of a baggie of marijuana: "I still have a lot of fight in me, a lot of life to live. I can't spend the rest of my life in prison."

On what he'd say to other teens: "Think before you act. Think five times before you act. Think five times before you speak."

• Terrance Wilder, 24, who killed two ministers, Joel England and Roderick Marable:

"I believe that everything has a purpose and a course in this life. I don't believe in luck. I don't believe in coincidence. Something always happens for a better purpose. Because if I wouldn't have gotten locked up, because if I wouldn't have come to prison, I could possibly be dead. I could possibly still be on the streets selling drugs, being selfish, not caring about family. And if it took this to help me to see . . ., I wouldn't change it."

Voices of the victims' families

• Gail Palone, a mother whose only child, Matthew Foley, was killed by Trevor Jones:

"I have been living every parent's nightmare for almost nine years. Matthew was a good, kind kid who would do anything for anyone.

"I sat through a week-long trial where his murderer sat with a smug smile on his face through the whole thing. He had bragged to his friends how he would be out in less than four years.

"Had they not tried him as an adult he probably would have. He was four months shy of 18 when he committed this act. Eighteen, they would have went for the death penalty. My opinion . . . too easy for him."

Dennis Schroeder © News Nathan Ybanez, who killed his mother: "I felt it was a life-or-death situation. In my head, there were two options. I either needed to kill people who were causing me so much pain and suffering, or I needed to be dead myself. It was one of those two things."

• Rick Peterson, brother of Rachelle Peterson, who was killed by Gregory Romero in a plot involving three other people, responding to stories that appeared in Monday's paper: "Anybody can change, but why should (Romero) have a second chance at life when my sister and Terrance didn't?"

• Rick Peterson, father of Rachelle Peterson:

On the Pendulum Foundation: "Have they ever lost a child? Obviously they never have or they wouldn't be trying to get (the killers) out."

On Romero: "I hope Romero lives until he's 120. He deserves to rot."

On his family's pain: "If I could do anything to get my daughter back, obviously I would. But I can't. It's been 10 years, and it still tears me up every day."

• Dave Wohlers, son of slain Trooper Lyle Wohlers on killer Marcus Fernandez: "I have no problem with him being incarcerated for the rest of his life. . . . I don't favor special privileges for juveniles."

• Ira Castor, whose 76-year-old mother, Barbara Jane Castor, was murdered by two teenagers in 1996: "Right after they put her to rest, for days I just sat around the house thinking, 'Why? Why would anyone want to harm that little woman?'

"You don't ever actually come to grips with it. You pull your socks on and go day to day.

"Every time I drive past the house, I think mom's still there."

• Richard Castor, Barbara Jane Castor's son: People advocating sentencing changes for juveniles "need to read the transcripts of the brutality.

"When you start reading the brutality of when they tied her up out there, you're gonna cry. It's gonna scare the hell out of you that they done that."