What should California do with its (former) juve killer?

This New York Times piece, headlined “A Killer at 16, and Still in California’s Juvenile Justice System Decades Later,” documents a notable case that perhaps lacks any easy solution. Here is how the piece starts:

Except for one detail and one horrifying crime, Donald Schmidt is a run-of-the-mill juvenile offender.  He watches television, does chores, talks to his lawyer and waits for his release.

Donald Schmidt, 37, molested and drowned a 3-year-old girl.  The detail is his age: Mr. Schmidt is 37, the oldest defendant ever in California’s juvenile justice system.  Just 16 when he molested and drowned a 3-year-old girl while high on methamphetamine, he has been in juvenile facilities for two decades, sometimes alongside teenagers who were not yet born when he was convicted.

Under California law, juvenile offenders who commit serious crimes can be kept in the system until they are 25.  Mr. Schmidt’s detention, though, has been extended under a rarely invoked state code that allows continued detention if a jury finds the inmate has a “mental disorder, defect or abnormality that causes the person to have serious difficulty controlling his or her dangerous behavior.”

Because Mr. Schmidt was convicted as a juvenile and continued to be held under the mental health code, he cannot be transferred to an adult facility.

The code requires such petitions for extended detention to be renewed or rejected every two years.  On Tuesday, prosecutors will again go to trial to argue that Mr. Schmidt should remain in juvenile custody, an argument they have made repeatedly, and successfully, since 1997, when he was first eligible for release.  “We believe he’s a psychopath,” said Bob Lee, the district attorney in Santa Cruz County. “And we believe has he has no regrets or remorse for his conduct.”