Supreme Court Strikes Down Juvenile Death Penalty
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:35 pm
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday abolished the death penalty for juveniles, a major victory for opponents of capital punishment in the last country in the world that gave official sanction to the execution of people who commit crimes as minors.
By a 5-4 vote, the high court declared unconstitutional the death penalty those under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes, a decision that could affect more than 70 death row inmates who face execution for murders done when they were 16 or 17 years old.
The decision amounted to a significant change from the Supreme Court ruling 16 years ago when it held the execution of juvenile offenders did not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Amnesty International human rights organization, which has campaigned for years against the execution of child offenders, hailed the ruling.
"Today's ruling we see as one of the final milestones in the road to global abolition of the death penalty for crimes committed by children," she said.
Opponents of capital punishment had argued that world opinion and a national consensus has now formed against the juvenile death penalty and said it should be struck down as unconstitutional, like the Supreme Court did in 2002 in barring executions of mentally retarded criminals.
In the court's majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy agreed and declared the U.S. Constitution forbids the imposition of the death penalty against offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.
"It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," he wrote in the 25-page opinion.
Kennedy cited evidence of a national consensus against the death penalty for juveniles. "Neither retribution not deterrence provides adequate justification for imposing the death penalty on juvenile offenders," he said.
Kennedy noted that the United States was the only country in the world that still gave official sanction to the juvenile death penalty.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented from the ruling.
"The U.S. was the only country openly admitting and claiming for itself the right to do this. So the fact that the U.S. has now ended it by this ruling really is a huge step toward global abolition for the death penalty for children," said Amnesty International researcher Rob Freer in London.
He said the United States had carried out 19 of the 39 executions of child offenders that Amnesty has recorded world wide since 1990.
The other countries that carried out such executions were Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But Freer said even those countries now consider the practice illegal, although they have not all succeeded in halting it.
Using the death penalty against offenders who were under 18 when they committed a crime is explicitly banned by the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 192 countries -- every country in the world except the United States and Somalia.
"But Somalia has no recognized government. The United States certainly has a recognized government," Freer said.
"It's one of the clearest principles around, which is why it is so shocking that the U.S. has until this time refused to do it," he added.
Thirty eight U.S. states and the federal government have the death penalty, of which 19 and the federal government have an age minimum of 18 for capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, said.
It said the other 19 states allow the death penalty for juvenile offenders, with five states setting age 17 as the minimum and with 14 states using age 16 as the minimum. In 1988, the Supreme Court barred the death penalty for those 15 or younger at the time of their crime.
The group said 22 inmates have been executed for murders committed at ages 16 or 17 since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. These executions make up about 2 percent of the total number of executions.
The justices agreed to revisit the juvenile death penalty after the Missouri Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
The state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence for Christopher Simmons, who was 17 in 1993 when he tied up a woman and threw her off a bridge, resulting in her death by drowning. The state court resentenced him to life in prison without parole.
Kennedy's opinion upheld the state court decision.
Opponents of the death penalty hailed the ruling.
In Atlanta, former President Jimmy Carter said, "This ruling acknowledges the profound inconsistency in prohibiting those under 18 years of age from voting, serving in the military, or buying cigarettes, while allowing them to be sentenced to the ultimate punishment."
David Elliot, a spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said, "Today's decision confirms what we all know and what science has recently proven. Kids are different."
William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said, "Today, the court repudiated the misguided idea that the United States can pledge to leave no child behind while simultaneously exiling children to the death chamber."
Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:1807, old post ID:24551
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday abolished the death penalty for juveniles, a major victory for opponents of capital punishment in the last country in the world that gave official sanction to the execution of people who commit crimes as minors.
By a 5-4 vote, the high court declared unconstitutional the death penalty those under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes, a decision that could affect more than 70 death row inmates who face execution for murders done when they were 16 or 17 years old.
The decision amounted to a significant change from the Supreme Court ruling 16 years ago when it held the execution of juvenile offenders did not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Amnesty International human rights organization, which has campaigned for years against the execution of child offenders, hailed the ruling.
"Today's ruling we see as one of the final milestones in the road to global abolition of the death penalty for crimes committed by children," she said.
Opponents of capital punishment had argued that world opinion and a national consensus has now formed against the juvenile death penalty and said it should be struck down as unconstitutional, like the Supreme Court did in 2002 in barring executions of mentally retarded criminals.
In the court's majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy agreed and declared the U.S. Constitution forbids the imposition of the death penalty against offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.
"It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," he wrote in the 25-page opinion.
Kennedy cited evidence of a national consensus against the death penalty for juveniles. "Neither retribution not deterrence provides adequate justification for imposing the death penalty on juvenile offenders," he said.
Kennedy noted that the United States was the only country in the world that still gave official sanction to the juvenile death penalty.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented from the ruling.
"The U.S. was the only country openly admitting and claiming for itself the right to do this. So the fact that the U.S. has now ended it by this ruling really is a huge step toward global abolition for the death penalty for children," said Amnesty International researcher Rob Freer in London.
He said the United States had carried out 19 of the 39 executions of child offenders that Amnesty has recorded world wide since 1990.
The other countries that carried out such executions were Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But Freer said even those countries now consider the practice illegal, although they have not all succeeded in halting it.
Using the death penalty against offenders who were under 18 when they committed a crime is explicitly banned by the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 192 countries -- every country in the world except the United States and Somalia.
"But Somalia has no recognized government. The United States certainly has a recognized government," Freer said.
"It's one of the clearest principles around, which is why it is so shocking that the U.S. has until this time refused to do it," he added.
Thirty eight U.S. states and the federal government have the death penalty, of which 19 and the federal government have an age minimum of 18 for capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, said.
It said the other 19 states allow the death penalty for juvenile offenders, with five states setting age 17 as the minimum and with 14 states using age 16 as the minimum. In 1988, the Supreme Court barred the death penalty for those 15 or younger at the time of their crime.
The group said 22 inmates have been executed for murders committed at ages 16 or 17 since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. These executions make up about 2 percent of the total number of executions.
The justices agreed to revisit the juvenile death penalty after the Missouri Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
The state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence for Christopher Simmons, who was 17 in 1993 when he tied up a woman and threw her off a bridge, resulting in her death by drowning. The state court resentenced him to life in prison without parole.
Kennedy's opinion upheld the state court decision.
Opponents of the death penalty hailed the ruling.
In Atlanta, former President Jimmy Carter said, "This ruling acknowledges the profound inconsistency in prohibiting those under 18 years of age from voting, serving in the military, or buying cigarettes, while allowing them to be sentenced to the ultimate punishment."
David Elliot, a spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said, "Today's decision confirms what we all know and what science has recently proven. Kids are different."
William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said, "Today, the court repudiated the misguided idea that the United States can pledge to leave no child behind while simultaneously exiling children to the death chamber."
Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:1807, old post ID:24551
