By a vote of 5 – 4, the U.S. Supreme Court has declared the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Today’s his­toric rul­ing in Roper v. Simmons holds that this prac­tice vio­lates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ments. The deci­sion will result in a new sen­tence for Christopher Simmons and like­ly new sen­tences for the 71 oth­er juve­nile offend­ers cur­rent­ly on state death rows across the coun­try. Simmons’ posi­tion was joined by many pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Bar Association, and by numer­ous coun­tries from around the world. Prior to today’s rul­ing, 19 states with the death penal­ty pro­hib­it­ed the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers. Twenty-two inmates have been exe­cut­ed for crimes com­mit­ted when they were under the age of 18 since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976.

(Associated Press, March 1, 2005) Read the Supreme Court Opinion (March 1, 2005) [PDF, 87pp.]. See DPIC’s Roper v. Simmons page. See also, Supreme Court and Juvenile Death Penalty.

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