| Show High Court Abolishes Death Penalty for Offenders Under 18 Charles Lane The Washington Post The Supreme Court abolished abolished abolished abol abol- capital punishment for juvenile offenders Tuesday ruling 5 to 4 that it is unconstitutional unconstitutional unconstitutional to sentence anyone to death for a crime he or she committed under the age of 18 In concluding that the death penalty for minors is cruel and unusual punishment the court cited a national consensus against the practice along with medical and social ence evidence that teen-agers teen are too immature to be held accountable for their crimes to the same extent as adults The court said its judgment which overturned a 1989 ruling ruling ruling rul rul- ing that had upheld the death penalty for 16 and year 17 old offenders was also influenced influenced influenced by a desire to end the United States' States international isolation on the issue From a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult for a greater possibility exists that a minors minor's character deficiencies will be reformed Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the opinion for the court Our determination See Death Penalty continued on page 6 Death Penalty continued from front Kennedy added finds confirmation in the stark reality that the United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official offIcial official cial sanction to the juvenile death penalty The ruling was the second time in three years the court had carved out a new categorical exception to the death penalty having banned capital punishment for the moderately mentally retarded in 2002 It came after just 59 people were executed in 2004 the fewest since the Supreme Court permitted permitted permitted per per- states to resume the death penalty in 1976 That decline is due in part to lower murder murder murder mur mur- der rates and in part to events such as the exoneration exoneration exoneration exon exon- of some death row inmates by DNA evi evi- dence Thus the ruling showed that society's reconsideration reconsideration reconsideration recon recon- of capital punishment has penetrated the court with the four liberal justices who joined Kennedy Tuesday John Paul Stevens David Souter Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer pushing hardest to change capital capital cap cap- ital punishment with the occasional help of either Kennedy or his fellow moderate conservative conservative conservative on the court Sandra Day OConnor OConnor O'Connor who voted with the four death penalty skeptics and Kennedy in the 2002 case dissented Tuesday along with the courts court's conservatives conservatives conservatives con con- Chief Justice William and Justices Antonin and Clarence Thomas By striking down Tuesday the death sentence a Missouri jury had imposed on Christopher Christoph r who Simmons was 17 on Sept 8 1993 when he broke into Shirley Crooks Crook's house kidnapped her and threw her bound and gagged into a river the river the court also canceled the death sentences sentences sen sen- sentences of 72 others for crimes they committed under underage age 18 One of those inmates Shermaine Ali AH Johnson 26 had been awaiting execution in Virginia for a rape and murder he committed in 1994 at the age of 16 Virginia law set a minimum minimum minimum mini mini- mum penalty death-penalty eligibility age at 16 but that is now unconstitutional By far the largest impact of Tuesdays Tuesday's ruling will be felt in Texas where there are 29 juvenile juvenile juvenile juve juve- nile offenders on death row and Alabama where there are 14 No other state has more than five As S of Tuesday 20 of 38 death penalty penal penal- ty states permitted the death penalty for under- under There have been 22 executions of juvenile offenders since 1976 13 of them in Texas Kennedys Kennedy's opinion rested in large part on the fact that 30 states including the 12 states that have no capital punishment forbid the death penalty for offenders under 18 That number represented an increase of five since the court upheld the juvenile death penalty in 1989 The court weighs death penalty laws according according according accord accord- ing to what a 1958 ruling called the evolving k standards of decency that mark the progress of ofa a maturing society and looks to state legislation legislation legislation legisla legisla- tion and jury verdicts to decide whether a national consensus has developed against a previously accepted practice In 2002 the court voted 6 to 3 to strike down the death penalty for the moderately mentally retarded which it had upheld 5 to 4 in 1989 In Inthe Inthe Inthe the 2002 case Atkins vs Virginia the court noted that the number of death penalty states banning that practice had grown from two in 1989 to 13 in 2002 while none had gone theother the theother theother other way The recent shift of states against the juvenile death penalty though less dramatic than the evidence the court found sufficient in the men men- tal-retardation tal case was enough to carry the day Kennedy concluded For the Supreme Court itself perhaps the most significant effect of Tuesdays Tuesday's decision is isto isto isto to reaffirm the role of international law in constitutional constitutional constitutional con con- interpretation The European Union human right lawyers from Great Britain and a group of former Nobel Peace Prize winners had urged the court in the of briefs to strike down the juvenile death penalty In saying that this strong expression of international international international inter inter- national sentiment provides respected and significant confirmation for our own conclusions conclusions conclusions Kennedy lengthened the recent string of decisions in which the court has incorporated foreign views and decisively rejected the arguments arguments arguments ments of those on the court led by who say it should consider US U.S. law exclusively There were actually six votes in Kennedys Kennedy's favor on that point Tuesday because in her dissenting dissenting dissenting dis dis- opinion OConnor O'Connor said that she agreed with Kennedy that international trends affect the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment punishment punishment punish punish- ment in modern times O'Connor's opinion suggested that she came fairly close to joining the majority entirely If she were a legislator OConnor O'Connor wrote I too would be inclined to support legislation setting setting a minimum age of 18 in this context But OConnor O'Connor wrote too few states had recently enacted such laws to convince her that the country generally had set its face against the juvenile death penalty in a separate dissent joined t and Thomas rh mas took the majority by bv to task for proclaiming itself sole arbiter of our Nations Nation's moral moral standards and in the course of dIsc discharging that aw awesome some responsibility porting to take guidance from the views purporting our pur- pur of nf foreign courts and legislatures Noting that hat most countries have more restrictive tive abortion laws than the United States accused the does doe court ourt of invoking alie alien law when It agrees WIth ones one's own ignoring mg I t it otherwise 0 th e Ise He read thinking his an and d f from the bench benc of opinion sIgn the therom rom courts court's decIsIon de sion strong disapproval fi for or 0 |
