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Background – The Constitutionality
of the Juvenile Death Penalty
(Updated as of February 12, 2004)
On August 26, 2003, in Simmons v. Roper, the Missouri Supreme Court
held that the execution of juvenile offenders in the state of Missouri violates evolving standards of
decency and is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment ban on "cruel and unusual
punishment" of the US Constitution. The State appealed to the US Supreme
Court. On January 26, 2004 the US Supreme Court granted certiorari in
the case of Simmons v. Roper and agreed to consider the
constitutionality of the death penalty as applied to juvenile offenders.
Juveniles and the Death Penalty: US
Context & Statistics
The Missouri Supreme
Court has vacated the death sentence of Christopher Simmons, holding that the
execution of juvenile offenders violates the Eighth Amendment of the United
States Constitution. Please note that for the purposes of this piece Missouri will be considered a
state which allows for the execution of juveniles and correspondingly the two
juveniles under sentence of death in Missouri will be included in the statistics below, until the
US Supreme Court reaches a decision.
Out of the 50 US states, 38 allow for
capital punishment, along with the military and federal government. Twelve states
and the District
of Columbia
(Washington, D.C.) prohibit the use of the
death penalty.
Of the 38 states which
allow the punishment, 16 of those, along with the US Government and the
military prohibit the execution of juvenile offenders. The 16 states are as
follows: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington.
Twenty-two states
currently allow for the execution of juveniles. Please note, as stated above, Missouri is included in this
number. Of the 22 however, 15 have not executed juvenile offenders since
re-instatement of the death penalty in 1976: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas,
Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North
Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. In fact only 7 States
have executed juveniles since 1976: Texas (13) Virginia (3) Oklahoma(2)
Georgia(1) Louisiana(1) Missouri (1)
South Carolina(1). Further, 9 States out of the 22, currently do not have
juveniles on death row: Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Please click here
for a table of state statistics.
Since re-instatement, 22
juveniles have been executed. For further details and names of those executed
please click
here.
As of February 2004, there are currently 82 juvenile
offenders, including Christopher Simmons, on death row within the US in 13 States: Texas (28), Alabama (14), Arizona (6) Louisiana (7), Mississippi (5), North Carolina (5), Florida (4), Pennsylvania (4), South Carolina (4), Georgia (2), Missouri (2), Nevada (1) and Virginia (1). For further
details, please click here.
Four of these juveniles are
currently facing execution dates in 2004. It is anticipated that these will be
stayed pending a USSC decision in Simmons.
Upcoming Juvenile Executions
Mauro Bazzara, a Latino male, was 17 years of age when he participated in the robbery and murder of 73-year-old Violrie Nelson, on June 14, 1989. He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to death. An execution date has been set for June 29, 2004.
Edward Capetillo, a Latino male, was 17
years of age at the time of his arrest for the murder of Kimberly Williamson,
20, on January
16, 1995.
Prior to the crime, Capetillo had no previous criminal record. He was later
found guilty and sentenced to death. An execution date has been set for March 30, 2004.
State District Judge William Harmon
denied a request from Capetillo's attorney that the execution be postponed
pending the US Supreme Court's decision in Simmons.
For further details on Edward Capetillo,
please
click here.
Efrain Perez, a Latino male, was 17 years of age when he participated
in the gang rape and murder of Jennifer Ertman, 14, (white) and Elizabeth Pena,
16, (Latina) in Harris County, Texas on June 24, 1993.
He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to death on September 22, 1994.
An execution date has been set for June 23, 2004.
Raul Villareal, a Latino
male, was 17 years of age when he participated in the gang rape and murder of
Jennifer Ertman, 14, (white) and Elizabeth Pena, 16, (Latina) in
Harris County, Texas on June 24, 1993. He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to
death on September 22, 1994. An execution date has been set for June 24, 2004.
Anzel Jones,
an African American male, was 17 years old when he was arrested in May 1995 for
the murder of Sherry Jones. On May 2,
1995, Anzel Jones broke into the Texas home of
Sherry Jones (no relationship) and her mother, Edith. While Edith Jones was
locked in the bedroom, Anzel Jones apparently stabbed Sherry Jones in the
chest, and cut her throat (Anzel Jones was possibly accompanied by another man).
As Edith Jones came out of the bedroom, Anzel Jones sexually assaulted her and
cut her throat. The house was then set on fire, but Edith Jones survived and
testified against Anzel Jones. Edith's daughter, Sherry Jones, died. Anzel
Jones was charged with capital murder on June 27, 1995.
He was convicted as charged and sentenced to death on June 3, 1996. An execution date
has been set for April 29, 2004.
- The US Supreme Court granted Anzel Jones a stay pending a decision in Simmons.
For further details on Anzel Jones, please click here.
US Supreme Court: Constitutionality
of the Juvenile Death Penalty
In 1988 the US Supreme Court in Thompson v
Oklahoma held that it constituted "cruel and unusual punishment" to
execute persons who were under 16 years of age at the time of the offense and
thus was prohibited by the Eight Amendment of the US Constitution. Thompson was
15 years old when he actively participated in a brutal murder, but the District
Attorney filed a statutory petition to have him tried as an adult, which the
trial court granted. Thompson was then convicted and sentenced to death, a
decision the Court of Criminal appeals of Oklahoma affirmed. The case was accepted by the US Supreme
Court, which then determined that the execution of offenders younger than 16
years of age at the time of the crime was unconstitutional because it violates
the Eight Amendment of the Constitution.
One year later, in Stanford v
Kentucky, the US Supreme Court found that there was not a national
consensus against the execution of those aged 16 or 17 at the time of the
offense and that such executions were thus constitutional.
In 2002, the US Supreme Court was
again faced with the opportunity to revisit the issue in the cases of Kevin
Stanford and Toronto
Patterson, but declined to do so. Nonetheless, unprecedented dissents in
both cases indicated that the juvenile death penalty should be re-examined at
the earliest opportunity. For the dissent in Patterson please click here and for the dissent in Re Kevin Stanford
please click
here. Yet, when the occasion once more
arose to review the matter, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in the
case of Scott
Hain, without
comment. Scott Hain was then executed on 3 April, 2003, becoming
the twenty-second juvenile in the US to be executed since
reinstatement of the death penalty.
On August 26, 2003, however, in Simmons v. Roper, the Missouri Supreme
Court held that the execution of juvenile offenders in the state of Missouri violates evolving standards of
decency and is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment ban on "cruel and unusual
punishment" of the US Constitution. The State appealed to the US Supreme
Court. On January 26, 2004 the US Supreme Court granted certiorari
in the case of Simmons v. Roper and agreed to reconsider the constitutionality
of the death penalty as applied to juvenile offenders.
Christopher Simmons: Facts of the
Case
Christopher Simmons was 17 years of
age at the time of his arrest for the September 9, 1993 murder of Shirley Crook. Crook's
body was found in the Meramec
River in St. Louis County, Missouri. She had been tied with electric cable, leather straps and
duct tape, had bruises on her body and fractured ribs. The medical examiner
determined the cause of her death was drowning. Prior to the crime, Simmons had
no previous criminal record. The jury, which sentenced Simmons, was never
adequately informed of Simmons' social history or the possible effects on his
behavior, including his abusive childhood, possible mental illness and drug
dependency. An execution date was scheduled for June 2002, however this was
stayed following Simmons' application for writ of habeas corpus to the Missouri
Supreme Court. The Missouri Supreme Court granted the writ on August 26, 2003 holding the execution of juveniles
to violate the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution.
For further information on
Christopher Simmons, please click here.
Simmons v. Roper: Decision Summary
Rationale
In reaching its decision in Simmons,
the Missouri Supreme Court followed the approach taken by the US Supreme
Court in Atkins v Virginia, 536 US 304 (2002) which held that a national
consensus had evolved against the execution of those with mental retardation
and thus such executions violated the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment
prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment". Similarly, in adopting this
approach the Missouri Supreme Court held that a national consensus had
developed against the execution of juveniles. In following the approach in Atkins,
the Missouri Supreme Court examined: (i) legislative action; (ii) frequency
of imposition of capital punishment on juveniles and the frequency with which
the sentence is actually carried out; (iii) national and international opinion;
and (iv) an independent examination of whether the death penalty as applied to
juveniles violates evolving standards of decency and hence is barred by the Eighth
and Fourteenth Amendments.
(i) Legislative Action
The Court noted that at the time of Stanford
11 states banned the execution of juvenile offenders. Since Stanford,
five more states have banned such executions. States have moved consistently in
the direction of opposition to the juvenile death penalty. This indicates that
the standard of decency has evolved since Stanford; not a single State
had lowered the execution from 18 to 17 or 16 during this time; and many States
have considered legislation to raise the minimum age to 18.
(ii) Infrequency of Imposition of
the Death Penalty
The Court noted that despite 22
States allowing the imposition of the death penalty on juveniles only 7,
including Missouri, have actually executed offenders
since reinstatement in 1976 and only three states, Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma since 1993. The Court found of
particular significance the fact that only 22 juvenile offenders have been
executed since re-instatement in 1976. Correspondingly, the Court found the
juvenile death penalty to be "so truly unusual that its potential application
is more hypothetical than real."
(iii) National and International
Opinion
Significantly, the Court cited
international law prohibiting the execution of juveniles. This included
specifically Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and
other international treaties and agreements. Alongside international law the
Court looked to the views of the international community and worldwide
imposition of the juvenile death penalty. In addition the Court found the
opposition of domestic social, professional and religious groups to confirm the
national consensus against the execution of juvenile offenders.
(iv) Independent Examination
Finally, the Court examined whether
the death penalty was warranted for juvenile offenders in regard to fulfilling
the primary social purposes of the punishment: retribution and deterrence.
Comparing juvenile offenders to those with mental retardation, the Court found
neither purpose to be furthered. The Court acknowledged the lesser culpability
and reasoning ability of juvenile offenders and also the unusual and infrequent
imposition of the death penalty on juveniles in reaching this decision.
Concurring Opinion of Judge Michael
A. Wolff
Justice Wolff concurred in the
ruling but additionally held that if the US Supreme Court disagrees with the
holding, then a presumption should be adopted that juvenile offenders lack the
capacity or maturity to be eligible for the death penalty. The Prosecution
would then have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the juvenile offender
possessed the requisite capacity. Justice Wolff asserted that this presumption
would not be based upon the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual
punishment, but instead a state-law interpretation of the statute that requires
age to be a factor in capital sentencing.
Dissenting Opinion of Justices Price
Jr., Benton and Limbaugh
The dissenting opinion was authored
by Justice Price, Jr. with Justices Benton and Limbaugh concurring. The
justices found that there was neither a "historical or modern societal
consensus forbidding the imposition of capital punishment on" those under 18
years of age at the time of the offense. Further, noting the US Supreme Court
decision in Stanford v Kentucky and its subsequent refusal to readdress
the issue despite recent opportunities to do so (for example the cases of Scott
Hain and Toronto Patterson), the Justices held that the Missouri Supreme Court
lacked authority to overrule existing US Supreme Court precedent. Instead the
Justices argued that "it is the prerogative of the Supreme Court of the United
States, and its alone, to overrule one of its decisions" and that the "proper
venue for Simmons to seek relief" is in the US Supreme Court.
Atkins v. Virginia
For a summary of the decision in Atkins,
please click
here. For an overview of the implications of the Atkins decision on
the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty, please click
here.
Missouri Supreme Court: Background
Information
The 4-3 split in the decision is of
particular significance; the judges in the majority are all appointees of
Democratic governors whilst the dissenters are Republican appointees. Justices Stith,
Teitelman, White and Wolff formed the majority: Stith and Teitelman were
appointed by Governor Holden, a democrat, and White and Wolff by the late
Democratic Governor Mel Carnahan. In marked contrast, the three justices in
dissent, Price, Limbaugh and Benton were appointed by Republican, John
Ashcroft, now the US Attorney General, before he left the Governor's office in
1993.
By commuting Simmons' death sentence
to life without parole, the Court's new Democratic majority overturned its own
1997 decision upholding Simmons' death sentence. The Democratic majority within
the Missouri Supreme Court is recent. The 2002 appointment of Richard B. Teitelman
by Governor Bob Holden gave the Court a Democratic majority. Since Teitelman's
appointment, the Court has reversed proportionately more death cases than it
had during the years when Republican appointees of former Gov. John Ashcroft,
now US Attorney General, held the majority. Indeed, in a review of capital
appeals addressed by the Court, a 50-50 reversal rate can be seen in decisions
made in 2002 and 2003. In contrast, from 1997 to 2001 61 death sentences were
affirmed and only 18 reversed (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Until the
appointment of Stith in March 2001, Ashcroft appointees held a 5-2 majority in
the Court.
History of Juveniles and Capital
Punishment in Missouri
Christopher Simmons and Antonio
Richardson are the sole offenders on Missouri's death row for crimes committed
when under the age of 18. Since the State of Missouri took over executions from
the counties in 1937, only one juvenile offender has been executed: In 1993,
Frederick Lashley was executed by lethal injection for the April 9, 1981 murder of Janie Tracey.
Responses to the Decision
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon appealed
the decision to the US Supreme Court. Nixon asserted that this decision "flies
in the face of US Supreme Court precedent" and has publicly stated that he
disagrees with the Court's reasoning: "we should live under the rules of
the Supreme Court until they're overturned, not use legal Ouija board."
Referring to both Simmons and the Washington D.C. sniper case of Lee Boyd Malvo,
Nixon continued: Two weeks later sitting in front of a birthday cake with 18
candles on it would not alter the mental state of a John Malvo or a Christopher
Simmons, in my opinion" (August 28, 2003,
Washington Times).
Potential Ramifications
The decision in Simmons is to
be applied retroactively to all cases on collateral review. Currently there is
only one other juvenile offender on Missouri's death row, Antonio Richardson.
Richardson was convicted of the 1991 murder and rape of Julia and Robin Kerry.
He was 16 at the time of the offence. Unless the Court's decision is
overturned, Richardson's death sentence will be commuted
and juveniles will be ineligible for capital punishment in Missouri. Please click
here for information on Antonio Richardson.
The ramifications of this decision,
however extend beyond Missouri and potentially may affect the remaining 21
States, which allow for the execution of juvenile offenders, and more specifically
the status of all of the 82 juveniles on death row.
Legislative History
The decision of the US Supreme Court in Stanford v.
Kentucky in 1989 established the constitutionality of the death penalty as
applied to juveniles aged 16 and above. Correspondingly, States were able, if
desired to, to reflect this within their State law. Despite this, not a single
State has lowered their age of eligibility to 16, conversely, five states have
increased the age of eligibility to 18. Both Montana (1999) and Indiana (2002) passed laws to raise the age
of eligibility to 18. On re-introducing the death penalty, Kansas (1994) and New York (1995) both elected to
set the minimum age of eligibility at 18. One State, Washington, raised the age to 18 through
judicial decision: Washington Supreme Court in State v. Furman (1993).
(Source: DPIC)
Missouri
Prior to the Missouri Supreme Court
decision in Simmons, the minimum age for imposition of the death penalty
in Missouri was 16. Offenders are considered to
be an adult as of their 17th birthday, but Missouri allows courts to certify 16-year-olds as adults in death cases. The
Missouri Legislature's spring session in 2002 considered, but did not pass,
bills to raise the minimum age from 16 to 18. State Rep. Robert Mayer, R-Dexter
and crime committee chairman, said there was no strong push to change it. Of
the 38 states that allow the death penalty, Missouri is one of the seventeen states that set the minimum age for the
imposition of capital punishment at 16. A further five states set the minimum
age at 17, with the remaining 16 states, which allow capital punishment,
setting the minimum age at 18, in line with both federal and military capital
punishment laws.
2004 Legislative Activity
As of February 2004, bills have been
introduced in 12 states to prohibit the application of the death penalty on
juvenile offenders: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming. In Missouri, the bill has been
shelved owing to the pending USSC decision in Simmons. In 2003, bills were
introduced in 14 States, unfortunately none were successful.
US: Opinion
Opposition to the imposition of the death penalty on
juvenile offenders has continued to grow over the past three years, despite
recent events involving 17 year old, Lee Boyd Malvo (the Washington, D.C.
sniper), which were widely expected to increase support for the juvenile death
penalty.
Gallup Poll, 2002
General Death Penalty
72% In Favour
25% Oppose
3% No Opinion
Juvenile Death Penalty
26% In Favour
69% Oppose
5% No Opinion
ABC Poll
Conducted December 10-14, 2003
Juveniles and Death Penalty
62% Favoured life without the
possibility of parole
21% Favoured the death penalty
Juvenile Offenders: Issues of Mitigation
Adolescent Brain Development
By their very nature, juveniles are less
mature, and therefore less culpable than adults. Adolescence is a transitional
period of life when cognitive abilities, emotions, judgment, impulse control,
identity -- even the brain -- are still developing. Questions concerning adolescent
development are becoming more pertinent as scientific research has revealed
that, both psychologically and physiologically, juveniles are very different to
adults. Clearly, the implications of such research are far reaching. Recent
research documenting the "extent of change that can occur in the (adolescent)
brain..." has been heralded as "one (of) the most remarkable findings
in neuro-biology of the last decade…" (National Research Council, 1999).
- For more information
on adolescent brain development click here.
Trauma and Abuse
Adolescent developmental immaturity is further
compounded by the innumerable extenuating circumstances that are frequently
encountered in cases involving juvenile offenders. The vast majority of
juveniles on death row have suffered extreme trauma and abuse, suffering from
all, or a combination of, the following mitigating factors; mental abuse,
physical abuse, sexual abuse, drug addiction, abandonment and severe poverty.
- For more information
on the implications of childhood trauma and abuse click here.
Race
66% of juveniles on death
row are people of colour. In comparison, only 32% of juvenile death row
inmates are white. This stands in marked contrast to the racial breakdown
within this age category (16-17) in the general population, where 43.4% are
white and only 21% are people of colour. This disparity further highlights the
inequities of the juvenile death penalty and may indicate significant racial
bias. (NCADP)
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: US and
Juvenile Death Penalty.
Most recently, the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded that the prohibition against the
execution of juveniles, defined as those under the age of 18 at the time of the
offence, was now of a sufficiently indelible nature to constitute a norm of jus
cogens (Domingues v. United States, Report
No. 62/02 October 22, 2002). As the IACHR
explained, norms of jus cogens "derive their status from
fundamental values held by the international community, as violations of such
peremptory norms are considered to shock the conscience of humankind and
therefore bind the international community as a whole, irrespective of protest,
recognition or acquiescence" (Domingues at 49).
Furthermore, the IACHR
found that "by persisting in the practice of executing offenders under the age
18, the US stands alone amongst the traditional developed world nations and
those of the inter-American system, and has been increasingly isolated within
the entire global community' (Domingues, at 84). The Commission
continued to find such executions to be ‘inconsistent with prevailing standards
of decency' (Domingues, at 84).
Several subsequent decisions, such as the Beazley, Sankofa
(Graham) and Thomas cases were built on the Domingues decision of 2000.
- Napoleon Beazley, an African-American, was sentenced to death in Texas after a
crime he committed when he was 17 years old. He was condemned for the murder of
John Luttig, a white community leader, on April 19, 1994,
and, although he has expressed deep regrets about his crime at several times,
he was executed on May 28, 2002 in Huntsville, Texas. More information on this case is available here.
The
inter-American Commission on Human Rights panel has condemned the United States
for allowing Texas to execute Napoleon Beazley, reiterating its stance
that executing inmates for the crimes they committed before they turned 18 is a
violation of international law.
For the IACHR decision, please click here.
-
Shaka Sankofa (previously known as Gary Graham), an African
American, was sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of Bobby Lambert in 1981. Sankofa was
17 years old at the time of the offense. He was executed on June 22, 2000 despite
probable evidence of his innocence and despite the fact that he had constantly
maintained that he didn't fire the fatal shot to Bobby Lambert. (Source:
Amnesty International)
For the IACHR decision, please click here.
-
Chris Thomas was convicted in 1991 of the 1990 murders of James
Wiseman and Kathy Wiseman, the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend Jessica
Wiseman. He received a 65-year prison sentence for the murder of James Wiseman,
and was sentenced to death for the murder of Kathy Wiseman. Despite the fact
that he was 17 at the time of the crimes, he was executed in Virginia on January 10, 2000.
Chris
Thomas consistently maintained that he had not fired the final shot which
killed Kathy Wiseman. Shortly before the execution, a woman who had allegedly
been held in juvenile detention with Jessica Wiseman after the murders came
forward and said that Jessica Wiseman had admitted to shooting her mother. In
June 1999, two other women came forward with the same allegations. Jessica
Wiseman was released from detention in 1997, when she turned 21. She denies
killing her mother. (Source: Amnesty International)
For
the IACHR decision, Please click here.
International Context (As of February 2004)
Since 1990, there has
been a marked reduction in the number of nations that allow such executions.
During this period, the number of countries that have reportedly executed
juvenile offenders has dwindled to just eight: Iran (8), Saudi Arabia (1),
Nigeria (1), the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC") (1), Yemen (1), Pakistan
(3), China (1) and the United States (19). In the last three years this small
number of nations further declined to only four: Iran (1), Pakistan (1), China
(1) and the United States (4). In fact, in the year 2002 only the US had
reportedly executed a juvenile offender. In 2003, the United States and China
each executed one juvenile offender.
In 1994, Yemen
changed its law to prohibit the execution of juveniles. In December 1999, the
DRC called for a moratorium on all executions. However, in January 2000, a 14
year-old child soldier was executed in the DRC. Since that time, according to
OMCT-World Organization Against Torture, four juvenile offenders sentenced to
death in the DRC in a military court were granted stays and the sentences were
commuted following an appeal from the international community (Case COD
270401.1.CC, 31 May 2001, OMCT-World Organization Against Torture). The
Nigerian government stressed to the UN Sub-Commission that the execution, which
took place in 1997, was not of a juvenile (See Summary Record of 6th Meeting of
the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, 52nd Sess.,
4th August, 2000, E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/SR.6 para.39 (2000)). Saudi Arabia
emphatically denies the 1992 execution of a juvenile (See Summary Record of the
53rd Meeting of the Commission on Human Rights, 56th Sess., April, 17, 200,
E/CN.4/2000/SR.53, paras 88 and 92).
In July 2000,
Pakistan moved to outlaw the execution of juvenile offenders under the Juvenile
Justice System Ordinance. Despite this ordinance, on 3 November 2001, Pakistan
executed Ali Sher for a crime he committed at the age of 13. Since this
execution, President Musharrah of Pakistan commuted the death sentences of
approximately 100 young offenders to imprisonment. This shift away from the
juvenile death penalty is supported by the Supreme Court of Pakistan's decision
on March 26, 2003 to "peruse and define laws relating to "the imposition of the
death sentence (on) young people."
In common with Pakistan,
the domestic law in China prohibits the execution of juveniles. However, in
January 2003, Zhao Lin, aged 18, was executed for an offense committed when he
was 16 years old. It has been suggested that Chinese courts may not take
sufficient care to determine the age of juvenile offenders which could have
resulted in this aberration of domestic law. Most recently, it has been
reported that Iran executed Mohammad Mohammadzadeh on 25 January 2004 for an offense
committed at the age of 17. Significantly however, in September 2003, it was
announced that Iran's judiciary had drafted a bill, to be presented to their
parliament shortly, which would eliminate the death penalty for offenders under
the age of 18.
Since 1998, the United States has been the only
country to reportedly execute juvenile offenders on a regular basis. The US
has, over the last decade, reportedly executed more juvenile offenders than
every other nation of the world combined.
Juvenile Death Penalty and International
Law and Instruments
An overwhelming body of treaty,
general and customary international law prohibits the execution of juvenile
offenders. Article 37 (a) of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC) specifically prohibits the execution of juvenile offenders. With
the exception of the US and Somalia, 191 nations have signed and ratified the CRC. Somalia,
until recently, had no recognizable government. However, on 9 May, 2002,
Somalia signed the CRC and announced its intention to ratify (International
Justice Project, 2003). Further, Article 6(5) of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) prohibits the death sentence for "crimes
committed by persons below eighteen years of age". The ICCPR has 149 state
parties. Upon ratification of the ICCPR, the US entered a reservation to
Article 6 (5), reserving the "right, subject to its constitutional constraints
to impose capital punishment on any person, including such punishment for
crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age". The validity of this
reservation is questionable (Schabas, 1995). In fact, even in times of war,
international law prohibits the execution of juveniles (Article 68 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, 1949).
Regional treaties
also establish this prohibition. In the inter-American system, Article 4(5) of
the American Convention on Human Rights prohibits the execution of juveniles;
25 of the 35 Member States of the Organisation of American States are party to
the Convention. Indeed, within Europe, Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection
of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Concerning the Abolition of the Death
Penalty, as amended by Protocol No. 11 prohibits the imposition of the death
penalty in peace time. Protocol No.13 also abolishes the death penalty in all
circumstances including crimes committed at times of war and imminent danger.
Moreover, the UN
has issued various resolutions confirming the prohibition against the execution
of juveniles.
For further
information on International Law and the Juvenile Death Penalty, please click here.
Additional Sources
Amnesty
International
Death Penalty Information Center
(DPIC)
National
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP)
ABA Juvenile Justice Centre
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