Juvenile Death Penalty Sentencing Is Term Paper

" (Potter, 1999)

Supreme Court finally strikes down juvenile executions

On Mar. 1, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down once and for all juvenile executions in the United States, abandoning nations such as Nigeria, Congo, China, Pakistan and others whose records of human rights abuse are staggering.

The 5-4 decision reverses the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment's strict ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The ruling continues the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. The court in 1988 outlawed executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes. Three years ago, the Supreme Court justices banned executions of the mentally retarded.

Tuesday's ruling prevents states from making 16- and 17-year-olds eligible for execution.

The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood.It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote. (Roper, 2005)

Juvenile offenders have been executed in recent years in only a few other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia. Kennedy cited international opposition to the practice.

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. (Roper, 2005)

So, in this case, the thought that executing minorities is cruel was vindicated finally.

Bibliography

Amnesty International. 1998. Juveniles and the Death Penalty: Execution Worldwide Since 1990. November.

Berk, R.; R. Weiss; and J. Boger. 1993. Chance and the Death Penalty. Law and Society Review 27: 89-110.

Bureau of Justice Statistics.1997. Capital Punishment 1996. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

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