Wyoming Legislators Vote to Ban Juvenile Death Penalty

Wyoming leg­is­la­tors in both the House and Senate have passed a mea­sure to ban the death penal­ty for those who are under 18 at the time of their crime, mark­ing the sec­ond time in one week that a leg­isla­tive body in the United States has passed a ban on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for juve­nile offend­ers. The bill now goes to Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal for his sig­na­ture to become law. (Feb. 27, 2004). Earlier in the week, South Dakota’s leg­is­la­ture vot­ed to out­law the prac­tice (read more). The U.S. Supreme Court will con­sid­er the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the juve­nile death penal­ty this fall when it hears argu­ments in Roper v. Simmons. See DPIC’s Roper v. Simmons page. See Juvenile Death Penalty.