Tampa Tribune

April 15, 2004

Editorial

A bill mov­ing through the state Senate would out­law the exe­cu­tion of killers who are younger than 18 when they com­mit mur­der.

Sen. Victor Crist, R‑Tampa, says he spon­sored the bill because it will pre­serve Florida’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law if the U.S. Supreme Court decides the death penal­ty can be imposed only on adults.

Florida law today allows the death penal­ty for 17-year-old killers, but the nation’s high court will soon decide whether exe­cut­ing juve­niles vio­lates the Eighth Amendment’s bar against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.

Two years ago the jus­tices banned the death penal­ty for men­tal­ly retard­ed killers, but they still allow states to exe­cute mur­der­ers who kill at age 16.

We are not opposed to state law­mak­ers mak­ing a deter­mi­na­tion about the age for exe­cu­tions. The elect­ed Legislature is the prop­er body to decide whether to restrict or abol­ish the death penal­ty.

Just because a state reserves the right to exe­cute a mur­der­er who kills as a juve­nile is no guar­an­tee that child will ever enter the death cham­ber. Take Lee Boyd Malvo, the teenage half of the Washington-area sniper team that left 10 peo­ple dead two years ago. Malvo faced the death penal­ty dur­ing his first tri­al, but the jury rec­om­mend­ed a life sen­tence.

There are peo­ple sup­port­ing Crist’s bill because they under­stand that rais­ing the age for exe­cu­tions is anoth­er step toward reject­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment alto­geth­er.

Those sen­ti­ments should­n’t cloud the issue. Crist has a strong record of being tough on crime. No juve­nile has been exe­cut­ed in Florida since 1948, so a ban’s impact would be min­i­mal.

Meanwhile, Florida’s right to impose the death penal­ty for the most heinous crimes would remain intact.

Sources

Tampa Tribune