GLENDALE, CA - Months after three Armenian teenage suspects were arrested for killing a Hoover High School Mexican student, the question of whether the youths should be tried as adults remains unresolved.

With indictment against two of the three teens thrown out, legal experts are watching closely because the case has statewide implications as a challenge to the constitutionality of Proposition 21, the initiative approved last March that requires adult court trials when murder charges are filed against youths between the ages of 14 and 17.

Under Proposition 21, the teens could face life sentences without parole if convicted in adult court. If they were found guilty in Juvenile Court, they would be eligible for release between ages 18 and 25.

California voters passed the proposition two months before 17-year-old Raul Aguirre, the Mexican student, died, allegedly at the hands of two underage Armenian teens, from knife stabs and blows to the head with a crowbar while the three fought outside of Hoover High School.

The two Armenian boys were indicted by a grand jury, along with then 14-year-old girls who had driven them to the site of the attack. But earlier in November, the indictments were overturned.

The judge said it was unclear whether grand juries can indict minors under Proposition 21 the way they can indict adults. Until the courts can untangle the enigmatic language, the teenagers sit in juvenile prison.

"Prosecutors were going to make these kids the poster children for Proposition 21 and, in their zeal, they have screwed up. And to undo that screwup, they are trying to torture the law and I don't think this judge is going to let them do that," Mark Geragos, attorney for one of the three suspects, was quoted as commenting.

While attorney Geragos believes Proposition 21 is a way for prosecutors to take the judge out of the equation, thereby giving prosecutors all the power, Deputy District Attorney Darrell Mavis differs on the issue.