Supreme Court to Review = Using Execution in Juvenile Cases

From: Subject: Supreme Court to Review Using Execution in Juvenile Cases Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:41:43 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0000_01C3E715.44F32220"; type="text/html" X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4927.1200 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0000_01C3E715.44F32220 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: file://I:\USERS\Libjj\JJC\Death%20Penalty\Web%20and%20internet\Articles\nytsimmons12704.htm Supreme Court to Review = Using Execution in Juvenile Cases

=20

January 27, 2004

Supreme Court to Review Using Execution in Juvenile=20 Cases

By LINDA = GREENHOUSE

3DW=20 ASHINGTON, Jan. 26 =97 The = Supreme Court agreed=20 Monday to decide whether the Constitution prohibits the death = penalty for=20 crimes committed at the age of 16 or 17.

With capital punishment for juvenile offenders falling rapidly = into=20 disuse across most of the country =97 only two such death = sentences were=20 imposed last year and jurors in Virginia rejected the death = penalty for=20 Lee Malvo, the teenage sniper whom they convicted of murder =97 = the justices=20 will consider whether there is now a national consensus of the = sort the=20 court discerned two years ago when it prohibited the execution of = mentally=20 retarded defendants.

The outcome is uncertain. Opponents of the death penalty have = pressed=20 the court for several years to reconsider a 1989 decision that = upheld=20 capital punishment for older teenagers; a decision in 1988 struck = down the=20 death penalty for those age 15 and younger.

Four justices =97 John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth = Bader=20 Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer =97 have made clear their = opposition to the=20 death penalty for 16- and 17-year-olds, calling it "inconsistent = with=20 evolving standards of decency in a civilized society" when they = dissented=20 in 2002 from the court's refusal to take up the issue.

Despite that strong language, the four conspicuously did not = manage to=20 attract a fifth vote for their position then, and it is far from = certain=20 that a fifth vote exists today. In fact, the impetus to take up = the issue=20 this time may well have come from the court's more conservative = members,=20 responding to an appeal filed by the state of Missouri from a = ruling by=20 the Missouri Supreme Court last August that overturned the death = sentence=20 of a man who killed at age 17.

The defendant, Christopher Simmons, who is now 27, was = convicted in=20 1993 of murdering a woman who recognized him when he broke into = her house=20 with a 15-year-old companion to commit a burglary.

A majority in the Missouri Supreme Court's 4-to-3 decision = relied=20 heavily on the United States Supreme Court's analysis in the = mental=20 retardation case, Atkins v. Virginia, for their conclusion that = the=20 execution of those who were younger than 18 when they committed = their=20 crimes had become so rare as to be "cruel and unusual punishment," = prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

Only three states, Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma, had executed = juvenile=20 offenders in the past 10 years, the state court observed.

Jeremiah W. Nixon, the Missouri attorney general, said in his = appeal=20 that the state court had defied a directly relevant precedent of = the=20 United States Supreme Court, the 1989 ruling in Stanford v. = Kentucky.

"The decision in Stanford has not been overturned by this = court, even=20 though the court has had recent opportunities to do so," Mr. Nixon = told=20 the justices. He said the state court's departure threatened to = "wreak=20 havoc throughout the justice system."

The Stanford ruling held that there was no national consensus = on=20 executing juveniles and let stand the death penalty imposed on the = defendant, Kevin N. Stanford. Mr. Stanford's sentence was later = commuted=20 by the governor of Kentucky.

The court will not hear the Missouri case, Roper v. Simmons, = No.=20 03-633, until next October. Because the decision will turn on the = court's=20 view of the existence of a national consensus, the briefs of each = side are=20 likely to display dueling interpretations of the same = evidence.

Of the 38 states that have a death penalty, 17 have set a = minimum age=20 of 18, either by legislation or judicial decision. That is an = increase of=20 five states since the Supreme Court found a lack of consensus on = the=20 question in its 1989 decision.

By contrast, only two states that had a death penalty barred = execution=20 of the mentally retarded in 1989, when the Supreme Court in a = separate=20 decision rejected a challenge to capital punishment for that = category of=20 defendants. The number grew to 18 by the time the court, = concluding that=20 there had been a "dramatic shift in the state legislative = landscape,"=20 ruled in the Atkins case in 2002.

Justice Stevens, in a footnote to his majority opinion in the = Atkins=20 case, compared the trends in punishing mentally retarded and = juvenile=20 defendants, finding no such dramatic shift on the juvenile = question. The=20 contrast "is telling," Justice Stevens said.

Since his own view was that the death penalty for juveniles was = unconstitutional, it is highly likely that he inserted that = footnote to=20 assure Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor, both = of whom=20 joined the 6-to-3 majority, that the retardation decision did not=20 foreordain a similar outcome for juveniles.

But the decision did not foreclose taking the next step. In = retrospect,=20 the footnote appears simply to have underscored the obvious: that = Justices=20 O'Connor and Kennedy hold the balance of power on the juvenile = death=20 penalty. Death penalty opponents need to persuade only one of them = to=20 prevail.

To that end, the opponents are likely to stress not only = growing=20 domestic opposition to executing juveniles but also, from an = international=20 perspective, the unmistakable isolation of the United States. In = speeches=20 and opinions, both Justices O'Connor and Kennedy have expressed = growing=20 interest in international legal developments.

The United States is the only country in which the execution of = those=20 under 18 is officially sanctioned and the only country that has = not signed=20 the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which = prohibits=20 the practice. Worldwide, the last five executions of juvenile = offenders=20 have taken place in the United States, the most recent in Oklahoma = last=20 April.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International began a campaign to = abolish=20 what it calls the "heinous practice" of executing juvenile = offenders.

The practice in the United States is highly uneven. Texas alone = has=20 accounted for 13 of the 22 juvenile executions since the modern = era of=20 capital punishment began in 1976. Of the 73 people currently on = death row=20 for crimes committed before the age of 18, almost a third are in=20 Texas.

Since executing Scott A. Hain last year, Oklahoma has had no = juvenile=20 offenders on its death row. It has not sentenced any to death in = the past=20 eight years. Nationwide, only two juveniles were sentenced to = death in=20 2003, the fewest in 15 years.

The juvenile death penalty issue came under public scrutiny = last year=20 when the Bush administration arranged to have Mr. Malvo, the = younger of=20 the pair of Washington-area snipers, tried in Virginia so that he = might=20 face the death penalty for a murder he was charged with committing = at age=20 17. The jury convicted him of the murder but voted to spare his = life.

Impact on Texas

HUNTSVILLE, Tex., Jan. 26 (AP) =97 Twenty-six Texas death row = inmates,=20 including three scheduled for lethal injection in the coming = months, would=20 be affected if the Supreme Court barred execution of convicted = killers=20 whose crimes were committed when they were younger than 18.

Under Texas law, a person who commits a capital murder at 17 = can be=20 sentenced to death. There are other states that extend capital = punishment=20 to 16-year-olds, but in Texas a 16-year-old charged with capital = murder=20 receives an automatic life prison term if convicted.

About a dozen men have been executed in Texas for crimes = committed when=20 they were 17 since 1982, when the state resumed executions. The = three now=20 on the execution schedule, all Harris County cases, are : Eddie = Capetillo,=20 set to die March 30; Efrain Perez, June 23; and Raul Villarreal, = June=20 24.

Roe Wilson, who handles capital case appeals for the Harris = County=20 district attorney's office, said Mr. Capetillo's lawyer was = already=20 inquiring about seeking a reprieve.

Of the 26 now on death row in Texas, where the total death row=20 population is 451, 10 are from Harris County. The most recent = inmate to be=20 executed for a crime committed when he was 17 was Toronto = Patterson, who=20 was 24 when he was put to death in August 2002 for killing a = 3-year-old=20 cousin at her Dallas home.

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