The Republican (Springfield, MA)

July 21, 2004

Editorial

Most of the world agrees on this much: A civ­i­lized nation does not exe­cute its young.

Virtually every nation in the world shares this fun­da­men­tal stan­dard of decen­cy, even some nations with his­to­ries of human rights vio­la­tions.

In this spir­it, 48 nations asked the Supreme Court this week to end the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple in the United States for crimes they com­mit­ted before they turned 18.

Briefs were also filed by 18 Nobel Peace Prize win­ners, 28 U.S. reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions, nine for­mer American diplo­mats, the American Bar Association and the nation’s largest doc­tors’ group urg­ing the nation’s high­est court to declare it as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.

Since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­tro­duced in the United States in 1976, 22 peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed for crimes they com­mit­ted as minors. It is a record that stains America’s rep­u­ta­tion through­out the world, leads to charges of hypocrisy and dam­ages the nation’s cred­i­bil­i­ty as a world leader.

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that men­tal­ly retard­ed peo­ple could not be exe­cut­ed, rea­son­ing cor­rect­ly that the pun­ish­ment vio­lat­ed the Constitution’s ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.

If the jus­tices apply the same rea­son­ing when they hear this case in the fall, they will block the exe­cu­tions of peo­ple who are guilty of being juve­niles at the time of their crimes.

Last year, the high court’s four most lib­er­al jus­tices — John Paul Stevens, Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter — issued a state­ment call­ing the death penal­ty for 16- and 17-year-old killers ​“incon­sis­tent with evolv­ing stan­dards of decen­cy in a civ­i­lized soci­ety.“

If one of the oth­er jus­tices will join them this fall, this pun­ish­ment will final­ly be declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.

A teen-age killer does not instant­ly become an adult when he pulls the trig­ger or slash­es a knife at his vic­tim. He is still an ado­les­cent, an impul­sive juve­nile who does not pos­sess the lev­el of moral cul­pa­bil­i­ty to jus­ti­fy impos­ing the death penal­ty. Do what must be done, but don’t kill him.

The United States has exe­cut­ed more juve­nile offend­ers than the rest of the world com­bined since 1990.

Judging from the briefs filed with the Supreme Court this week, it seems the world has been watching.

Sources

The Republican (Springfield, MA)