Cruel and unusual

Daily Targum (Rutgers University)

October 20, 2004

Editorial

The Supreme Court is look­ing into ​“evolv­ing stan­dards of decen­cy” in con­sid­er­ing where it stands on con­tin­u­ing the prac­tice of sen­tenc­ing juve­niles to the death penal­ty. As of Oct. 13, the court heard argu­ments over a 2003 Missouri Supreme Court deci­sion that said exe­cut­ing a per­son who had com­mit­ted a mur­der when he was 17 would vio­late the Eighth Amendment’s pro­hi­bi­tion against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.

Other than the United States, the only coun­tries to have exe­cut­ed juve­nile offend­ers since 1990 are China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Since 1990, the United States has killed 19 juve­nile offend­ers, the high­est of any of these coun­tries.

According to Solicitor General Seth P. Waxman, neu­ro­bi­o­log­i­cal research con­firmed because ado­les­cents’ brains are still devel­op­ing, a crime com­mit­ted by some­one under 18 might not reflect the defen­dan­t’s ​“endur­ing char­ac­ter” but rather a tran­sient pro­cliv­i­ty for vio­lence.

This rais­es the ques­tion of what age juve­niles should be con­sid­ered respon­si­ble for their own actions and whether or not they should be put to death for their actions if they don’t yet have the full capa­bil­i­ty to judge right from wrong.

A heinous crime is an impul­sive act, and fear of a pos­si­ble death penal­ty will, in most cas­es, not stop the per­son from com­mit­ting the crime, espe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing ado­les­cents tend to be far more impul­sive than adults.

This is not to say ado­les­cents should not be held respon­si­ble for their actions, but the United States should look to oth­er fac­tors con­tribut­ing to their deci­sions before sen­tenc­ing them to death.

Schools should take stronger ini­tia­tives to coun­cil those in need of emo­tion­al sup­port, imple­ment sup­port­ive after school pro­grams and be more involved in the lives of their stu­dents to pre­vent iso­lat­ed and poten­tial­ly vio­lent men­tal­i­ties. Schools and com­mu­ni­ties have to take an ini­tia­tive and step in where many fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to fail.

In a per­fect world, our schools and com­mu­ni­ties would pro­vide sup­port­ive and car­ing envi­ron­ments for every juve­nile. This is an ide­al that should be strived toward but is admit­ted­ly a lofty vision. Children will fall through the cracks, but their pun­ish­ment should not be death. Life impris­on­ment and reha­bil­i­ta­tion are accept­able alter­na­tives and will make sure those who deserve it are brought to jus­tice with­out vio­lat­ing inter­na­tion­al laws of decency.