Supreme Court should end exe­cu­tions of juveniles

Kansas City Star

January 29, 2004

Editorial

After decid­ing to review a Missouri case, the U.S. Supreme Court has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to stop death penal­ty sen­tences on those who were minors when they committed crimes.

Since 1973, states have put to death more than 20 juve­niles. Justice John Paul Stevens right­ly labeled such exe­cu­tions ​“shame­ful” and Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer agreed. Experts believe a deci­sion in this case will rest with Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy, both of whom pre­vi­ous­ly vot­ed to ban cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for peo­ple who are mentally retarded.

The Supreme Court took this case on appeal from Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon. He is chal­leng­ing a 4 – 3 Missouri Supreme Court deci­sion last year. That court over­turned the death sen­tence imposed on Christopher Simmons, who was 17 when he killed a woman in 1993. The court ordered Simmons to spend life in prison.

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Missouri Supreme Court’s rul­ing, it would reverse its own 1989 deci­sion that allowed states to exe­cute killers who were 16 or 17 years old when they com­mit­ted capital crimes.

Missouri could have avoid­ed the expense and ener­gy required to lit­i­gate this appeal by join­ing many oth­er states that have abol­ished the death penal­ty. At a min­i­mum, law­mak­ers should adopt a bill (SB 726) that would cre­ate a com­mis­sion to study the death penal­ty and impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. Kansas is con­sid­er­ing a similar bill.

The U.S. Supreme Court has pre­vi­ous­ly ruled that peo­ple who are men­tal­ly retard­ed can­not be exe­cut­ed. Juvenile exe­cu­tions should be the next to end.