Juvenile Death Penalty

“In Atlanta, former President Jimmy Carter said, ‘This ruling acknowledges the profound inconsistency in prohibiting those under 18 years of age from voting, serving in the military, or buying cigarettes, while allowing them to be sentenced to the ultimate punishment’” (U.S. Department of State, 2005)The death penalty will always be a subject that is debated nation and world wide. There will never be a compromise between the two parties involved in the argument. Within capital punishment, there are many subcategories that are argued over. There is the death penalty for mentally ill patients, women, and juveniles. This paper will go into detail about the end of the death penalty for juveniles and the statistics of the death penalty for juveniles. 

“A closely divided Supreme Court ruled March 1, 2005 that the death penalty cannot be imposed on youthful murderers who were not yet 18 years of age at the time they committed the crimes, ending a practice used in 19 of the U.S. states” (U.S. Department of State, 2005). The court had decided that the law compromised the eighth amendment in the constitution. The court came to the ruling with a 5-4 decision. “In concluding that the death penalty for minors is cruel and unusual punishment, the court cited a ‘national consensus’ against the practice, along with medical and social-science evidence that teenagers are too immature to be held accountable for their crimes to the same extent as adults” (Lane, 2005). Although the courts take a step in the correct direction at this stage in the process, they have to acknowledge that they put this practice in effect in the first place. In 1989, the law was written to allow juvenile executions even though the public was told to treat children differently.