Tallahassee Democrat

April 12, 2004

Editorial

By Sheila S. Hopkins

Children are dif­fer­ent from adults. That is why soci­ety does not allow them to buy tobac­co or alco­hol, own a hand­gun, serve in com­bat or vote.

With few excep­tions, a gen­er­al rule of law is that par­ents have an oblig­a­tion to finan­cial­ly sup­port their chil­dren until age 18 when they would be con­sid­ered adults.

The Florida Catholic Conference joins oth­er voic­es sup­port­ing the pas­sage by the Florida Legislature of SB 224 and HB 63, with no amend­ments, which would make the death penal­ty an autho­rized pun­ish­ment only for those who are 18 years of age or old­er at the time they com­mit­ted a cap­i­tal crime.

Our hearts go out to the vic­tims of a hor­ri­ble crime, and seri­ous crime deserves sig­nif­i­cant pun­ish­ment. Few of us know the pain felt by those who have lost a loved one. Thoughts of revenge are often the imme­di­ate reac­tion. Just as God put a mark on Cain to pro­tect him from those who would seek revenge for the death of his broth­er Abel, we need to put pun­ish­ment in the prop­er per­spec­tive for youth who have not reached matu­ri­ty.

Advances in sci­ence have revealed that the brain con­tin­ues to devel­op up until the ear­ly 20s. Immaturity and impul­sive­ness of emo­tions, in addi­tion to the hor­mone and emo­tion­al changes to the body, are indi­ca­tions that ado­les­cents have not yet achieved adult­hood; there­fore, they should be judged as hav­ing less cul­pa­bil­i­ty for their actions. Life in prison with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole is an alter­na­tive avail­able in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. All peo­ple are cre­at­ed in the image and like­ness of God, but every­one is not giv­en the same gifts nor do they end up in a home where they are loved and nur­tured. A 2003 study of juve­nile offend­ers pub­lished in the Juvenile Correctional Mental Health Report found that more than 30 % of death row juve­nile offend­ers suf­fered from at least 4 sig­nif­i­cant life-alter­ing trau­mas. Among them were abuse or neglect, psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders, sub­stance addic­tion, fam­i­ly dys­func­tion or pover­ty. Moreover, such mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence was pre­sent­ed in less than half of the offend­ers’ tri­als. Most chil­dren under 18 have not had to cope with even one of these trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences.

Evolving stan­dards of decen­cy played a key role in the abo­li­tion of the exe­cu­tion of men­tal­ly retard­ed in a Virginia case, tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion laws in effect in 30 states ban­ning this prac­tice.

Momentum is build­ing nation­al­ly for a ban on exe­cut­ing juve­niles as 13 oth­er states, in addi­tion to Florida, intro­duced leg­is­la­tion to ban the juve­nile death penal­ty in 2003. Recently Montana, Indiana, South Dakota and Wyoming added their names to the list of 31 states that do not allow exe­cu­tion for 16- and 17-year-old offend­ers.

Poll results released in December 2003 by ABC News regard­ing Americans’ opin­ion on the fate of ​“sniper” Lee Malvo were in favor of life impris­on­ment, rather than death — the same as the ver­dict ren­dered by the Virginia jury that heard all the tes­ti­mo­ny about his par­tic­i­pa­tion in these heinous crimes.

Florida has not exe­cut­ed a juve­nile offend­er since 1954, and there are only three juve­nile offend­ers on Death Row. We urge sen­a­tors and rep­re­sen­ta­tives to take up this leg­is­la­tion, which has passed in at least one of the Florida cham­bers in 2000, 2001 and 2003. In the near future, a Missouri case will be before the U.S. Supreme Court, which could declare exe­cu­tion of juve­niles ​“cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.”

Let’s stand up now ​“for the least among us” and choose to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for 16- and 17-year-old offend­ers.

Sheila S. Hopkins is asso­ciate for social con­cerns for the Forida Catholic Conference in Tallahassee

Sources

Tallahassee Democrat