Roanoke Times and World News

July 23, 2004

Editorial

Lawyers rep­re­sent­ing Virginia are among those argu­ing to the U.S. Supreme Court that states know bet­ter whether killers who com­mit­ted crimes as juve­niles deserve the death penal­ty.

The jus­tices should dis­miss the errant posi­tion staked out by Virginia and a few oth­er states and heed the call of an impres­sive group, includ­ing Nobel lau­re­ates, that has asked the court to end the exe­cu­tion of killers who com­mit­ted crimes as teens.

Certainly, young peo­ple should be held account­able for heinous acts of vio­lence. But a tru­ly just and humane soci­ety should rec­og­nize youth as a mit­i­gat­ing fac­tor for spar­ing its young from the most severe form of crim­i­nal pun­ish­ment.

As pre­vi­ous­ly not­ed on this page, both sci­ence and expe­ri­ence illus­trate that young peo­ple often lack the matu­ri­ty, moral gauge, judg­ment and abil­i­ty to con­trol their impuls­es.

When the court con­sid­ers the case this fall, it also should weigh oth­er fac­tors that under­cut the argu­ment favor­ing exe­cu­tions in gen­er­al, includ­ing racial dis­par­i­ty and the qual­i­ty of legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the poor.

Just as the Supreme Court pre­vi­ous­ly banned exe­cu­tions for chil­dren under 16 and for the retard­ed, it should sum­mon such sen­si­ble judg­ment and ban the death penal­ty for 16- and 17-year-olds.

The United States is one of only a few nations that allow the death penal­ty for crimes com­mit­ted before 18.

The Nobel lau­re­ates — includ­ing Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev — filed a brief this week urg­ing the court to end the prac­tice, cor­rect­ly say­ing it makes the United States look hyp­o­crit­i­cal on human rights.

But lawyers for Virginia, Delaware, Alabama, Oklahoma, Utah and Texas said the deci­sion of who is exe­cut­ed belongs to states:

”[Our] expe­ri­ence strong­ly indi­cates that a bright-line rule cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly exempt­ing 16- and 17-year-olds from the death penal­ty … would be arbi­trary at best and down­right per­verse at worst.“

No, what’s per­verse is a nation will­ing to send its young to the death cham­ber. The court should so rule.

Sources

Roanoke Times & World News