Edward Brian Capetillo

Eddie's Case | The Case Against JDP | Available Action

Edward Capetillo was assigned an execution date of March 30, 2004. His execution was stayed by the United States Supreme Court after it agreed to hear Roper v. Simmons, the case in which the Justices will reconsider the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty.

On January 31, 1996, Eddie Capetillo was convicted of capital murder for causing the death of Kimberly Williamson. Eddie was only 17 years old at the time of the crime. While we in no way seek to excuse Eddie's crime or minimize the pain and suffering endured by the victim and her family and friends, we believe that the state of Texas should not execute Eddie Capetillo for this crime.

The Crime

The Trial

Eddie was only 17 years old at the time of the crime. He was a student at Klein High School in Texas and had no adult criminal record. The state's punishment evidence consisted primarily of a chronicle of disciplinary problems at school and in his neighborhood. However, sixteen witnesses testified on Eddie's behalf at his trial, including his parents and some of his teachers, soccer teammates, and neighbors. They reported that Eddie was quiet and respectful and spoke about his love for playing soccer. Eddie had joined the Navy's "Delayed Entry Program" in his senior year, and his Navy recruitment officer testified that Eddie had been a highly motivated and respectful member of the program. Furthermore, a friend testified that he had seen Eddie on the day of the offense and observed that Eddie had been under the influence of LSD and cocaine. A physician spoke as an expert witness about the dangerous effects those drugs have on a person's perceptions and actions.

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The Case Against the Juvenile Death Penalty

Executing Juvenile Offenders Runs Counter to Basic Standards of American Justice and Fairness

The execution of a juvenile offender is contrary to fundamental principles of American justice which punish according to the degree of intent and culpability and reserve the death penalty for only the "worst of the worst" offenders. By their very nature, teenagers are less mature and, therefore, less culpable than adults who commit similar acts but have no such explanation for their conduct. Adolescence is a transitional period of life when cognitive abilities, emotions, judgment, impulse control, and identity are still developing. In fact, recent discoveries in neuroscience reveal that the brain continues to develop into the early twenties, with the executive functions, such as impulse control, identity, decision making, and morality, developing last. As a result, late adolescence is a time when youth are refining moral values and when they are most susceptible to adult moral instruction. Indeed, immaturity is the reason we do not allow those under eighteen to assume the major responsibilities of adulthood, such as serving on a jury, military combat service, voting, entering into contracts, drinking alcohol or making medical decisions.

Immaturity, compounded by additional extenuating circumstances, may demonstrate why the death penalty is not an appropriate form of punishment. A high percentage of juveniles on death row have suffered from all, or a combination of, the following mitigating factors; mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, drug addiction, abandonment and severe poverty. These factors may cause serious distress for the children involved. Trauma ordinarily arrests development in children and can frustrate all aspects of the child's functioning, including brain development. Children who are physically or sexually abused may be functioning at an emotional level close to the age when the trauma occurred. Furthermore, trauma may affect the development of the brain, with an involuntary fear response remaining the child's coping mechanism for most if not all degrees of stress. The experience of an abused and traumatized child is one of fear and frustration. Further, adolescents reason differently from adults, their processes are immature, including non-anticipation of an out come, underestimation of danger, and notably, the presumption that only one choice is available for them.

This is not to say that juvenile offenders do not know right from wrong and should not be punished, but that we as a society and a legal system have deemed that juveniles are different from adults and should not be subject to the ultimate adult punishment. A number of organizations, such as the American Bar Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the European Union, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Child Welfare League of America, the Children's Defense Fund, the Youth Law Center, The Juvenile Law Center, the National Mental Health Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, the National Education Association, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, the Constitution Project, Physicians for Human Rights, the International Human Rights Law Group, World Organization Against Torture, the Reformed Church of America, the Episcopal Church, the Apostolic Nunciature, and the Unitarian Universalist Association, oppose executions for crimes committed by offenders under the age of 18. Similarly, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Vatican and Nobel Peace Prize recipients, such as President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama have expressed their strong opposition to the execution of juvenile offenders. Their message is the same; they urge that the execution for a crime committed while a juvenile is simply unacceptable in a civilized society.

In October, 2002, the United States Supreme Court was one vote shy of reconsidering whether the execution of 16 and 17 year olds has become cruel and unusual punishment and, thus, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. Four Justices publicly dissented, writing that the Court should address this issue now. In June, 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia, the US Supreme Court found that executing those with mental retardation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The Court found that those with mental retardation "by definition…have diminished capacities to understand and process information, to communicate, to abstract from mistakes and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand the reactions of others." Scientists have found that adolescents and those with mental retardation share many of the same diminished capacities. Indeed, in August, 2003, the Missouri Supreme Court held that there is a national consensus against the execution of juvenile offenders and, as such, the practice is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

In 2002, Indiana abolished the juvenile death penalty, while Florida came extremely close (a bill passed the Senate unanimously, but died in the House; a similar bill had passed the House the previous year). In 1999, the State of Montana abolished the juvenile death penalty, and the Florida Supreme Court raised the age of eligibility from 16 to 17. Further, the Washington State Supreme Court eliminated the juvenile death penalty under state constitutional law in 1993, and Kansas and New York excluded juveniles for eligibility when they reinstated the death penalty in 1994 and 1995, respectively. In the midst of the current national reexamination of capital punishment, many states are reviewing their current death penalty practices and have either introduced legislation to abolish the juvenile death penalty or are considering such legislation. In the 2003 legislative session, 14 states, more than half of those with the juvenile death penalty, saw the introduction of legislation to raise the age of eligibility for capital punishment to 18. Finally, when the federal death penalty was reinstated, Congress specifically excluded offenders under the age of 18 from eligibility.

Executing Juvenile Offenders is Contrary to International Law

Since 1990, only seven countries have reportedly executed juveniles: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Yemen, Pakistan and the United States. In the last three years this small number of nations known to have executed child offenders has further declined to only four: the DRC, Iran, Pakistan, and the US. In 1994, Yemen changed its law to prohibit the execution of juveniles. The Nigerian government has asserted to the UN Sub-Commission that an execution, which took place in 1997, was not of a juvenile, and Saudi Arabia emphatically denies the 1992 execution of a juvenile. In July 2000, Pakistan moved to outlaw such executions under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance signed on 1 July 2000. However, it has been reported that Pakistan executed Ali Sher on 3 November 2001 for a crime he committed at the age of 13. Since that time, President Musharrah of Pakistan has commuted the death sentences of approximately 100 young offenders to imprisonment.

In December 1999, the DRC called for a moratorium on all executions. However, in January 2000, a 14 year-old child soldier was executed in the DRC. Since that time, according to OMCT-World Organization Against Torture, four juvenile offenders sentenced to death in the DRC in a military court were granted stays, and the sentences were commuted following an appeal from the international community. In October, 2002 in Domingues v. Nevada, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held that the prohibition of the execution of juvenile offenders is a jus cogens norm of international law. The Commission explains that jus cogens norms "derive their status from fundamental values held by the international community" and "violations of such preemptory norms are considered to shock the conscience of humankind and therefore bind the international community as a whole, irrespective of protest, recognition, or acquiescence." It also cites other examples of such norms, including "genocide, slavery, forced disappearances and torture." The Commission held that the United States "acted contrary to a international norm of jus cogens as reflected in Article I of the American Declaration by sentencing Michael Domingues to the death penalty for crimes that he committed when he was 16 years of age." It is unmistakable that beyond the borders of the United States, the application of the death penalty for child offenders is rapidly advancing towards total abolition. Of the six countries, other than the US, that have reportedly executed juvenile offenders, all have either changed their laws or the governments have denied that the executions took place.

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Available Action

Under Texas law, the Governor has the power to grant clemency only upon recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Please send letters to the Board and to Governor Perry requesting that Eddie be granted clemency and his sentence commuted.

Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
Attn: Executive Clemency Section
P.O. Box 13401, Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78711
Fax: 512.463.8120

The Honorable Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
PO Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428
Fax: 512.463.1849