NCJ Number
207313
Journal
Children's Legal Rights Journal Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 2004 Pages: 12-22
Date Published
2004
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes the use of the juvenile death penalty in the United States and argues that a national consensus has developed against its use.
Abstract
The United States is among only a handful of countries worldwide to use the death penalty against juvenile offenders. The history of the juvenile death penalty in the United States is described, followed by an analysis of recent case law and jury verdicts concerning the juvenile death penalty. The eighth amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment is the foundation for the analysis of the death penalty; the U.S. Supreme Court has been tasked with the determination of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. On three occasions, the U.S. Supreme Court has grappled with the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty; two of these cases are described: Thompson v. Oklahoma and Stanford v. Kentucky, the latter of which found the death penalty constitutional for offenders of at least the age of 16. The plurality in Stanford were unwilling to look to international laws and jurisprudence in its decisionmaking; the extent to which the Court will be willing to consider international opinion in future cases will greatly affect the future of the juvenile death penalty in the United States. Recent court cases, including a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the death penalty for mentally retarded offenders (Atkins v. Virginia), suggest that the tide of opinion may be turning against the use of the death penalty for juveniles. As such it is time for the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its position in Stanford v. Kentucky by applying the analysis it adopted in Atkins. Endnotes, appendix