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Juvenile Death Penalty Abolished The big news of the week, of course, is the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish the juvenile death penalty. I’ve made a selection from the many articles being published about the decision with the intent of bringing a variety of sources to your attention. First, here’s a link to the Supreme Court’s decision. It is an 87 page pdf file with 4 appendices: States that permit the death penalty for juveniles; Minimum age to vote; Minimum age for jury service; and Minimum age for marriage without parental or judicial consent. ++++++++++ The Argument on Executing Young Killers In the next few months the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. Supporters argue that the small number of juvenile death penalty cases proves that the system works and that juries are making discerning choices on whom to sentence to death, taking account of the defendants’ youth and reserving the ultimate punishment for the worst of the worst. An examination of the cases of juvenile offenders now on death row raises questions about how reliable and consistent juries have been in making those decisions. Professor Victor Streib, a law professor at Ohio Northern University and an expert on the juvenile death penalty, says “We can’t look at juveniles on death row and say they are the worst of the worst. Some have killed entire families. Some shot a clerk while robbing a convenience store…and you have no idea why lightning struck in this or that case.” For more information, including a link to Streib's Juvenile Death Penalty statistics, see the Juvenile Death Penalty page in the Brevity Subject Library. ++++++++++ Too Immature for the Death Penalty? This article on the juvenile death penalty will provide you with more details about the research on child and adolescent development presented in briefs in the Simmons case last week from the American Medical Association, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other health and research groups. ++++++++++ Supreme Court Considers Teen Executions Today People started arriving at the court before midnight last night in hope of getting a seat for the argument, expected to be a lively debate on subjects like gang violence, scientific evidence about brain development of teens, and world condemnation of juvenile executions. The Supreme Court is considering a case involving the kidnapping and killing of a Missouri woman. Two teens forced the victim, wearing only underwear and cowboy boots, into a van and later threw her off a bridge to drown. One of the two, Christopher Simmons, was sentenced to die for that crime, one he committed at the age of 17. More than 70 people who committed crimes as 16- and 17-year olds are on death row. The question for the justices is whether those executions are unconstitutionally cruel. The USA, Somalia, Iran, and the Congo permit executions for juvenile crimes. Nineteen states allow executions for people under age 18: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Texas, and Virginia. The case is Roper v. Simmons, 03-633. Visit the ABA Juvenile Death Penalty web site for more details.
++++++++++ Supreme Court to Hear Juvenile Death Penalty Case The Supreme Court agreed to hear in October the case of Christopher Simmons who was sentenced to death for the 1993 drowning of Shirley Crook, 46, when Simmons was 17. The case could lead to the reversal of a 1989 decision in which the court upheld the death penalty for crimes committed by 16- and 17-year-olds. The United States is one of five countries in the world that executes juvenile offenders. They are China, Congo, Iran, Pakistan and the United States. Forty eight nations, 18 Nobel Peace Prize winners, 28 U.S. religious groups, and a host of medical, legal and child advocacy groups argued against executing juvenile offenders. Go to the ABA’s Juvenile Death Penalty site for more information and to view the amicus briefs. ++++++++++ Juveniles and the Death Penalty This 2000 publication of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention examines the history of capital punishment and Supreme Court decisions related to its use with juveniles. It also includes profiles of those sentenced to death for crimes committed as juveniles and notes the international movement toward abolishment of the juvenile death penalty. Downloadable. 16 pages. ++++++++++ Kentucky Governor Commutes Death Sentence for Juvenile Offender On December 8, 2003 Kentucky Governor Paul Patton officially commuted the death sentence of Kevin Stanford, the only juvenile offender on Kentucky ’s death row, to life without parole. Kevin’s commutation is especially significant, as it was his case in which a plurality of United States Supreme Court Justices held that it was not unconstitutional to execute 16- and 17-year-old offenders in Stanford v. Kentucky in 1989. Read about the decision here. ++++++++++ Malvo and the Juvenile Death Penalty The articles below examine the juvenile death penalty and recent research on adolescent development and juvenile justice in association with Malvo’s trial. Lee Malvo was 17 at the time of the Metro DC area shootings last October. The New York Times article includes an interview with Dr. Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University who argues, based on studies of the development of the adolescent brain, that young offenders should be viewed under the law as less guilty than adults. CSM - Sniper case revisits juvenile death penalty NYT – Young Killer: Bad Seed or Work in Progress ++++++++++ The Juvenile Death Penalty This two-page fact sheet from the ABA includes facts about the juvenile death penalty, a list of organizations in opposition to it, why the death penalty should be prohibited and a list of prisoners executed or facing execution for homicides they committed as juveniles. Victor Streib has published an annual compendium of juvenile death penalty sentences and executions since 1973 and his most recent report, published in July 2003, is available to read or download. Click here for the Streib report. Recent news about the juvenile death penalty. Read here about Iran's intent to formally abolish the death penalty for offenders under the age of 18. ++++++++++ John Malvo and the Death Penalty On January 15, a Virginia juvenile court judge ordered John Lee Malvo to be tried as an adult. This ruling makes him eligible for the death penalty in Virginia . The ABA ’s Juvenile Death Penalty site will tell you more about Malvo, about Virginia law, and the Juvenile Execution Index, a record of juvenile executions in the U.S. and the world in the past decade. You can read here about the ABA ’s position against the juvenile death penalty. Lots of links too. ++++++++++ Juvenile Death Penalty ++++++++++ Juvenile Death Penalty – From the ABA's Juvenile Justice Center. At this site, resources and background information, general death penalty information, news coverage, international law documents, and a variety of other useful information sources. You will also see profiles, photos, background information on three young men with imminent execution dates. All three were 17 at the time of the crime. Beazley and Patterson are in Texas ; Simmons in Missouri ++++++++++ Death Penalty Information Web site. This Michigan State University web site offers a curriculum for high school students with a teacher guide. Information at the site includes methods of execution, history of the death penalty, interactive U.S. maps. With four courtroom cases and stages in a capital case information too. This is adult death penalty information, not juvenile, but a useful information source nonetheless. ++++++++++ Juveniles and the Death Penalty - This bulletin examines the history of capital punishment and Supreme Court decisions related to its use with juveniles. It also includes profiles of those sentenced to death from crime committed as juveniles and notes the international movement toward abolishing this sanction. [Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Available from NCJRS. See main page for details.] [Editor’s note: The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that permits the execution of those who were still children when they committed their crimes. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits this practice. The United States and Somalia are the only two countries that have not yet ratified this document.] Death Penalty - A report on the death penalty, A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, finds that courts across the country have overturned about two-thirds of death sentences. In cases that were retried, four of five defendants were not resentenced to death. The report was commissioned by the Senate and done by Columbia University. It is the result of nine years of work by three reseachers: James Liebman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Valerie West. Gary Graham, who was recently executed in Texas, was convicted for a murder he committed at the age of 17. During the past 15 years the US has executed 16 juvenile offenders. Currently about 70 people across the country are on death row for crimes committed before they were 18. State Laws on Juvenile Homicide - Thirty-eight states have the juvenile death penalty.
- Fourteen states have a minimum age of 18.
- Five states have a minimum age of 17.
- Nineteen states have a minimum age of 16.
- Twelve states do not have a juvenile death penalty statute.
For information on each state's minimum age, see the Death Penalty Information Center, Juvenile Information Page. Death Sentences and Executions for Juvenile Crimes - Victor L. Streib, Dean and professor of law at Ohio Northern University Law School has a report on the web that is updated regularly. The latest update was in June, 1999. Texas and Florida regularly top the list for the largest number of executions of persons who committed murders as juveniles. See Death Sentences and Executions for Juvenile Crimes
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