Executing Juveniles
Supreme Court Wrestles with the Execution of Young Criminals
The U.S Supreme Court's recent consideration of Roper v. Simmons has catapulted the issue of the execution of juveniles back into the spotlight. The high Court is currently examining whether executing juveniles is unconstitutionally cruel or if the United States is out of step with world opinion, which for the most part condemns such practice.
Roper v. Simmons comes to the Court on appeal from the Missouri Supreme Court, whose ruling followed the logic behind Supreme Court's 2002 Atkins v. Virginia decision to strike down the death penalty for the mentally retarded. It is argued that the execution of the mentally retarded raises similar concerns as those broached regarding the execution of juvenile offenders. Specifically, the inability to control impulses, mental immaturity, a lower level of moral responsibility, the inability to understand death or the reason for the sentence, and a mind not fully developed. The reasoning in Atkins is closely analogous to juvenile offenders. Link to Missouri Supreme Court Opinion:
http://www.osca.state.mo.us/Courts/PubOpinions.nsf/0f87ea4ac0ad4c0186256405005d3b8e/dac0cb85e435849686256e45007ef4fe?OpenDocument
Additionally, in the current Simmons case before the Court, Justice Ruth Bader Gingsburg raised the argument that the dividing line between adults and children is the age of 18 and not younger. "Americans have to be 18 to vote, to sit on juries, to serve in the military," said Ginsburg.
Indeed, when compared to the rest of the world, the death penalty for juvenile offenders seems to be uniquely American. It has been abandoned by many nations in recent years in large part based on a resolution passed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and other international treaties and agreements. In the last 10 years, China, Pakistan and Yemen have joined the majority of countries prohibiting the death penalty for juveniles. International human rights groups are imposing considerable pressure on the 19 U.S. jurisdictions that allow the execution of criminals convicted when they were minors. Despite international pressure, the United States has refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids countries from executing juvenile offenders.
Currently in the United States, there are approximately 70 death row inmates who were sentenced for crimes they committed as 16- and 17-year-olds. Although 38 states have the death penalty, it can be imposed on juvenile offenders in only 19 states.
There has also been recent legislative activity in various states to raise the minimum age to 18, thus barring juveniles from the death penalty. In 2004, both South Dakota and Wyoming banned the juvenile death penalty. No states have considered lowering the minimum age.
“There is growing bipartisan consensus that the juvenile death penalty serves no acceptable purpose,” says Ginny Sloan, executive director of the Constitution Project, a bipartisan group housed at Georgetown University that seeks to develop bipartisan solutions to contemporary constitutional and governance issues through high-level scholarship and public education.
The high court is expected to rule on Simmons by the middle of next year. It remains to be seen what will be decided with regard to the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty in the United States--the Court is usually deeply divided on death penalty cases. In the meantime, it is likely that this issue will remain under scrutiny in both the states and in the public eye.
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Hammond
Criminal Justice Program
NCSL - Denver
jj-info@ncsl.org
(303) 364-7700
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