The Honolulu Advertiser

July 25, 2004

Editorial

Now, here’s a ques­tion:

What do the nations of China, Congo, Iran, Pakistan and the United States have in common?

The answer is these are the only four known coun­tries in the world that allow the exe­cu­tion of juve­niles for cap­i­tal crimes.

The human rights records of China, Congo, Iran and Pakistan are well known. Why is it that the United States would wish to join this list?

The truth is that for the most part the United States has sep­a­rat­ed itself from the hand­ful of nations that exe­cute the young for cap­i­tal crimes.

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and 31 states have abol­ished the youth death penal­ty .

But under our sys­tem of gov­ern­ment, those remain­ing states that choose to exe­cute youth­ful offend­ers are free to do so, unless the penal­ty is found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.

Which is pre­cise­ly what is before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case aris­ing out of a Missouri inci­dent in which a 17-year-old was con­vict­ed of delib­er­ate­ly drown­ing a woman.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that exe­cu­tion of men­tal­ly retard­ed indi­vid­u­als is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al as cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.

The same should apply to the exe­cu­tion of youth­ful indi­vid­u­als who com­mit crimes, however heinous.

Sources

The Honolulu Advertiser