Entries by Claire Moustafellos

This month marks the 20^th anniver­sary of the land­mark U.S. Supreme Court deci­sion in Roper v. Simmons. In a series of posts antic­i­pat­ing the April 2025 release of DPI​’s report com­mem­o­rat­ing the 20^th Anniversary of the Roper deci­sion and its impli­ca­tions for emerg­ing adults , we are explor­ing sci­en­tif­ic and legal devel­op­ments relat­ed to juve­niles and emerg­ing adults in the death penal­ty sys­tem. Adverse child­hood expe­ri­ences (ACEs) refer to potentially…

Thirty years ago this month, the Supreme Court in its land­mark deci­sion Roper v. Simmons found cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for indi­vid­u­als under 18 years of age uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. In explain­ing their deci­sion, the Court drew in part on​“sci­en­tif­ic and soci­o­log­i­cal” stud­ies show­ing that a lack of matu­ri­ty in youth can lead to​“impetu­ous and ill-con­sid­ered actions and deci­sions,” which sup­port­ed the idea that this cohort…