Publications & Testimony

Daytona Beach News-Journal July 26, 2004 Editorial A first kiss, a first time behind the wheel, a first college-entrance exam — these are the experiences of teen-hood. Death row shouldn’t be one of them. The United States is one of just five countries that still executes offenders who committed murder when they were younger than 18. In this, it joins an infamous group of nations including Iran, the Sudan and China, reviled the world over for abusing their citizens. Even among so abhorrent a…

Birmingham (AL) News July 26, 2004 Editorial In a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, Alabama Attorney General Troy King wrote there’s “little room for doubt that at least some adolescent killers most assuredly have the mental and emotional wherewithal to plot, kill and cover up in cold blood. They should not evade full responsibility for their actions by the serendipity of chronological age.” Of course, society treats age as more than a matter of chance, or “serendipity,” as King calls it. A…

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…

News & Observer July 24, 2004 Editorial Americans increasingly are uneasy over the frequency with which condemned inmates are found to be innocent or to have had trials that were tainted by prosecutorial or police overreaching. But for good reason, there’s an added layer of unease about sending people to the death chamber whose crimes were committed when they were juveniles. While there’s little sentiment for executing the rare child who goes so horribly astray as to commit murder, the issue…

News & Observer July 24, 2004 Editorial With its annual list of violator countries, the United States claims the title of defender of human rights, and given its heritage and standing in the world, the title is fitting. A chink in the claim, however, is that 19 states allow the execution of people who committed capital crimes at the ages of 16 or 17. True, that age bracket is on the cusp of what is typically considered adulthood. But there is no getting around the fact that 16- or…

The Virginian Pilot July 24, 2004 Editorial A broad swath of humanitarian, religious, medical, legal and governmental groups recently urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the death penalty for individuals whose crimes occurred before they turned 18. The five Supreme Court justices who disagreed in 2002, when the high court last weighed the matter, should consider carefully the evidence that standards of decency have evolved. No one disputes that Christopher Simmons, a Missouri inmate…

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.

A clemency letter-writing campaign organized by Alabama death row prisoners on behalf of James Barney Hubbard, an ailing 74-year-old man who is scheduled to be executed on August 5^th, was recently halted by Department of Correction authorities at Donaldson Prison. Just two months before Hubbard’s scheduled execution, Willie Dorrell Minor wrote a clemency petition to Alabama Governor Robert Riley. He planned to have the petition asking Riley to spare Hubbard’s life signed by other individuals on…

A new report released by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury recommended changes to the state’s costly death penalty and called into question its effectiveness in preventing crime. The Office of Research noted that it lacked sufficient data to accurately account for the total cost of capital trials, stating that “because cost and time records were not maintained, the Office of Research was unable to determine the total, comprehensive cost of the death penalty in Tennessee.” Although…

The Coloradoan July 21, 2004 Editorial By Julie Baxter Remember those misspent days of your youth? When you were invincible, intelligent and incapable of making a bad decision? Now, can you remember just how vulnerable, foolish and gifted you were at making rotten choices? We all did things in our younger days we aren’t proud of, things we regret, things that after the heat of the moment passed, we would have done much differently. Turns out there’s good cause for that; our brains just…