The Republican (Springfield, MA)

October 11, 2004

Editorial

One day, we hope, the United States Supreme Court will rule that the death penal­ty is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.

In the mean­time, the nation’s high­est court can take a step toward that end by rul­ing it uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to exe­cute a juve­nile.

On Oct. 13, the court will hear argu­ments in Roper vs. Simmons, a chal­lenge to the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty for per­sons who com­mit­ted crimes when they were 16 or 17 years old.

The United States is one of only a hand­ful of nations where such exe­cu­tions are still pos­si­ble.

In 1988, the court pro­hib­it­ed the exe­cu­tion of those whose crimes were com­mit­ted at 15 or younger, but it ruled the next year that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for 16- and 17-year-old defen­dants does not con­sti­tute ​“cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.“

While there have been few exe­cu­tions for juve­nile crimes in recent years, the United States has exe­cut­ed more juve­nile offend­ers than the rest of the world com­bined since 1990. It is a shame­ful record.

The United States does not allow a 16-year-old to buy cig­a­rettes, buy a six-pack of beer, sit on a jury or vote on Election Day because we don’t trust his capac­i­ty to make the right deci­sion. That is an old argu­ment, but it is sound. By any mea­sure or def­i­n­i­tion, a 16-year-old is still a child.

In July, 48 nations for­mal­ly asked the U.S. Supreme Court to end the exe­cu­tion of juve­niles. Briefs were also filed by 18 Nobel Peace Prize win­ners, 28 U.S. reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions, the American Bar Association and the nation’s largest doc­tors’ orga­ni­za­tion urg­ing the nation’s high­est court to declare it uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Few cas­es before the court have gen­er­at­ed such a loud and uni­form response.

In 2002, the court decid­ed by a 6 – 3 mar­gin that the exe­cu­tion of the men­tal­ly retard­ed is cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, and thus uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. We hope that the jus­tices would use the same log­ic on Oct. 13.

4 jus­tices — John Paul Stevens, Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter — issued an unusu­al state­ment last year call­ing the death penal­ty for juve­niles ​“incon­sis­tent with evolv­ing stan­dards of decen­cy in a civ­i­lized soci­ety.“

One more makes a major­i­ty.

Can 4 Supreme Court jus­tices and 18 Nobel Peace Prize win­ners be wrong? 

Sources

The Republican (Springfield, MA)