Orlando Sentenial

April 12, 2004

Editorial

We sup­port the death penal­ty — for adults. But it’s wrong for Florida to con­sid­er exe­cut­ing peo­ple for crimes they com­mit­ted before age 18.

Yet a mea­sure in the Florida Legislature intend­ed to reserve cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for con­victs old­er than 18 has been twist­ed by a House sub­com­mit­tee. It allows the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple who com­mit­ted crimes when they were 17. It’s incum­bent that rea­son­able law­mak­ers set the age lim­it at 18.

Reserving the death penal­ty for adults does­n’t impugn cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Indeed, the pro­pos­al to set the age lim­it at 18 was made by state Sen. Victor Crist, one of the most pas­sion­ate sup­port­ers of Florida’s cap­i­tal-pun­ish­ment laws.

Mr. Crist said he did a lot of soul search­ing before reach­ing the con­clu­sion that exe­cut­ing peo­ple for crimes com­mit­ted as juve­niles was wrong because teenagers and adults are not the same. The rea­son­ing that led him to that con­clu­sion is sup­port­ed by sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence. High-tech­nol­o­gy imag­ing exams show that the brain’s frontal lobe, which helps antic­i­pate con­se­quences and con­trols impuls­es, is not ful­ly devel­oped in teens. That explains why some juve­niles may make poor deci­sions that could result in hor­rif­ic crimes. It’s also note­wor­thy that exist­ing laws rec­og­nize that teens lack matu­ri­ty. That’s why juve­niles aren’t allowed to vote or drink alco­hol.

Despite these issues, juve­niles who com­mit vicious dead­ly crimes can­not be allowed to walk free. Life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole is the best way to pun­ish them. That should last a long, long time.

Sources

Orlando Sentinel