The Georgia Supreme Court grant­ed a stay in the case of Alexander Williams.

Georgia, which has not had an exe­cu­tion in over 2 years, was scheduled 

to exe­cute Alexander Williams in the state’s elec­tric chair on August 

24, 2000. Williams was only 17 years old at the time of the crime, and 

is a diag­nosed schiz­o­phrenic. Williams was rep­re­sent­ed by an attorney 

who could not suc­cess­ful­ly name two crim­i­nal cas­es, and who was later 

offi­cial­ly removed from the list of those qual­i­fied to handle criminal 

cas­es. Williams was sched­uled for a clemen­cy hear­ing on August 22, 2000.

Under Georgia law, the Board of Pardons and Paroles has the exclusive 

pow­er to com­mute his sen­tence to life in prison. Former First Lady 

Rosalynn Carter wrote to the Board express­ing her con­cern in this case, 

as did Mariam Wright Edelman, President of Children’s Defense Fund. 

(American Bar Association, August 2000) Visit the ABA Juvenile Justice Center’s Web site for more infor­ma­tion about the case and to read the let­ter from Mariam Wright Edelman request­ing clemen­cy for Williams.

Amnesty International issued a news release and a report on the Williams case. The report, ​“Abandoning Justice: The immi­nent exe­cu­tion of Alexander Williams, men­tal­ly ill child offend­er,”

notes that if Williams is exe­cut­ed, the United States will have 

exe­cut­ed more juve­nile offend­ers in just over sev­en months than the rest

of the world com­bined has exe­cut­ed in the past sev­en years. (Amnesty

International News Release, 8/​16/​00). The full report can be accessed on Amnesty International’s Web site.

On January 25, 2000, Glen McGinnis

was exe­cut­ed for a mur­der com­mit­ted dur­ing a rob­bery that occurred when

he was 17 years old. He had nev­er used a gun pri­or to this incident and

nev­er before been charged with any offense involv­ing weapons. McGinnis 

was exe­cut­ed in Texas by lethal injec­tion, despite pleas from The Vatican, the European Union, and the American Bar Association.

Steven Roach, who was sen­tenced to death for a crime he com­mit­ted when he was 17 years old, was exe­cut­ed on January 13, 2000 in Virginia.

Amnesty International Secretary General Pierre Sane sent a letter to 

Governor James Gilmore ask­ing him to grant clemen­cy. ​“We in no way seek 

to excuse that crime or belit­tle the suf­fer­ing it has casued. We seek 

only Virginia’s com­pli­ance with inter­na­tion­al law and global standards 

of jus­tice,” wrote Sane. Gilmore, how­ev­er, denied clemency.

Douglas Christopher Thomas was exe­cut­ed on January 10, 2000. Thomas was exe­cut­ed in Virginia even

as doubts about his con­vic­tion devel­oped. Shortly before his execution,

wit­ness­es had come for­ward stat­ing that Thomas’ co-defen­dant, his 

girl­friend Jessica Wiseman, admit­ted that it was she who killed her 

moth­er, the crime for which Thomas was sen­tenced to death. Both Jessica 

and Thomas were juve­niles at the time of the crime. Jessica, who was 14 

when she solicit­ed Thomas to kill her par­ents, has already been 

released. However, Thomas, who was 17 at the time, received the death penal­ty. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Thomas’ lawyers appeal con­tend­ing that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

signed by the U.S., pro­hibits the exe­cu­tion of juvenile offenders. 

Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore denied clemen­cy despite pleas from the 

European Union and the American Bar Association. (Richmond

Times-Dispatch, 1/​11/​00)

For the first time in 40 years, a 16-year-old offend­er was exe­cut­ed in the United States. Sean Sellers was exe­cut­ed in Oklahoma on February 4, 1999. Many peo­ple spoke out against the exe­cu­tion, includ­ing South Africa’s Desmond Tutu, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, the American Bar Association and Bianca Jagger .

Sellers had been diag­nosed with mul­ti­ple per­son­al­i­ty dis­or­der, though 

that was­n’t explained to the jury at his tri­al. The U.S. Court of 

Appeals held that Sellers may be ​“fac­tu­al­ly inno­cent” of the 

mur­ders because of his men­tal ill­ness, but then went on to say that 

inno­cence alone is not suf­fi­cient to grant fed­er­al relief. (Daily

Oklahoman, 12/​1/​98). The last 16-year-old offend­er exe­cut­ed in the U.S.

was Leonard Shockley who died in Maryland’s gas cham­ber in 1959. 

Virtually all the coun­tries in the world have signed an inter­na­tion­al treaty which for­bids such exe­cu­tions (International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights). The U.S. is the only coun­try

to rat­i­fy this treaty with an out­stand­ing reser­va­tion regarding the 

exe­cu­tion of juve­niles. The Convention on the Rights of the Child also 

for­bids such exe­cu­tions, but the U.S. is one of the few coun­tries in the

world which has failed to rat­i­fy this treaty.