A bipar­ti­san mea­sure to elim­i­nate the juve­nile death penal­ty in Florida has passed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and is now on its way to the full Senate for con­sid­er­a­tion. The mea­sure was intro­duced by Republican Senator Victor Crist, a death penal­ty sup­port­er who notes that young peo­ple are dif­fer­ent because they don’t have the same under­stand­ing of con­se­quences as an adult. .The bill also has sup­port from the state’s top law enforce­ment offi­cers, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Guy Tunnel. ​“You need to show some com­pas­sion, but you can’t for­get the needs of vic­tims. I’m a pro­po­nent of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment but I think, gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, this is a good thing,” said Tunnel of the bill. Earlier this year, Wyoming and South Dakota elim­i­nat­ed the juve­nile death penal­ty, and the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this fall whether the prac­tice is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and 19 states pro­hib­it the death penal­ty for offend­ers who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crime, and 12 addi­tion­al states do not have cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, April 14, 2004) See Juveniles: Roper v. Simmons. See also, New Voices.

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