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Christopher Simmons - Juvenile Death Penalty

Christopher Simmons

Chris's Case | The Case Against the JDP | Additional Information | Clemency Letters | Media Attention

 
On July 19, various interested parties submitted amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Roper v. Simmons, in which the Justices will reconsider the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. Click here for a list and to read the arguments. The Respondent's brief on behalf of Chris Simmons is available here.
 

On January 26, 2004, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will re-examine the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty in Chris's case. Roper v. Simmons, No. 03-633, is not yet scheduled for oral arugment, but all amicus and party briefs have been filed with the Supreme Court. Read the Respondent's brief on behalf of Chris Simmons and the amicus briefs filed with it on July 19.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in August 2003 that the execution of those who committed crimes while under the age of 18 violates evolving standards of decency and is, therefore, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Court set aside Chris's death sentence and re-sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of probation or parole. To read the Missouri Supreme Court's opinion, please click here. To read the Missouri Attorney General's brief to the Supreme Court arguing against Chris and for the juvenile death penalty, please click here.

 

Chris's Case

Christopher Simmons – who was just 17 years old at the time of his offense – had received a May 1, 2002 execution date in Missouri. Christopher was convicted of murdering Shirley Crook. Her body was found in the Meramec River in St. Louis County on September 9, 1993. She had been tied with electric cable, leather straps and duct tape, had bruises on her body and fractured ribs. The medical examiner determined the cause of her death was drowning.

Executing Christopher would be contrary to evolving American standards of justice, fairness, and decency as well as international law. This is a call for his sentence to be commuted to life in prison. In appealing for clemency on behalf of Christopher Simmons, we do not, in any way, seek either to excuse the crime or to minimize the pain and suffering it caused Ms. Crook's family and friends.

CHRISTOPHER WAS RAISED IN AN ABUSIVE AND DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY ENVIRONMENT

Christopher was seventeen years old and in high school at the time he was charged with the murder. He lived with his mother, Cheryl Hayes, and stepfather, Bob Hayes in Fenton, Missouri. He also had regular contact and visitation with his father, Dennis Simmons, and stepmother, Beth Simmons. Christopher's mother and father had divorced shortly after his birth and the relationship between the Hayes and Simmons' families was hostile throughout Christopher's childhood. His parents competed for Christopher's time and attention and he always felt torn between the two families. To this day, the Hayes and Simmons families cannot be in the same room together without violent arguing.

Throughout his life, Christopher Simmons' stepfather was abusive, both physically and mentally. Bob Hayes, a chronic alcoholic, would threaten, intimidate, scream at, and hit Christopher. His means of disciplining Chris was by "whooping" him with a belt. When Chris was a young child, Bob Hayes took him to a bar and forced him to drink alcohol for the amusement of the other patrons. Hayes admits that on another occasion he took Christopher fishing and tied him to a tree for hours so that he wouldn't wander away. Later, when he became obsessed with teenage Christopher's acne, Hayes would regularly hold him down squeezing all of his pimples until they bled. A friend of Christopher reports that she once saw Christopher's ear bleeding after a beating by Hayes and later learned that Christopher's eardrum had been seriously damaged. Christopher's mother was intimidated by, and afraid of, her husband and never intervened to rescue her son from the abuse. Bob Hayes' two biological children were treated far better than Chris. Not surprisingly, Christopher turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of an abusive childhood.

Prior to the trial, the District Attorney concluded that a life sentence was appropriate and offered Christopher a plea to life in prison. His parent's conflict continued to play itself out in their advice to Christopher. His father encouraged him to take the plea while his mother, unable to come grips with her son's actions and the prospect of him spending the rest of his life in prison, advised him not to take the plea.

CHRISTOPHER COOPERATED WITH THE POLICE AND CONFESSED TO THE CRIME, WITHOUT WHICH THE CASE AGAINST HIM WOULD HAVE BEEN EXTREMLY WEAK

Questioned by police without the advice of counsel or a parent, Christopher confessed to the crime. He did so, in part, because he was told by the arresting officers that he was facing life in prison or the death penalty and that things would be in his best interest if he did confess (falsely suggesting to the teenager that he would not face the death penalty if he did confess). Without Christopher's confession, the evidence against him would have been extremely weak, if not legally inadequate. It was his own remorseful and pressured confession that resulted in the necessary proof and ultimately led to his sentence of death. The police officers failed to testify at his sentencing hearing that he did indeed waive his right to remain silent and cooperated with them. At the time he was charged with the murder, Christopher had no previous criminal record.

THE JURY THAT SENTENCED CHRISTOPHER WAS NEVER ADEQUATELY INFORMED OF HIS CHILDHOOD, MENTAL CONDITION, OR DRUG DEPENDENCY AND THEIR EFFECTS ON HIS BEHAVIOR

Although a number of witnesses were willing to testify in mitigation for Christopher - including friends, neighbors, and a psychologist who had evaluated Simmons - Christopher's attorney did not call them as witnesses. The testimony presented simply portrayed Christopher as a good brother, a loving son who had a good relationship with his mother, and a compassionate person who provided support for his friends and family.

Defense attorneys failed to elicit critical information from the few witnesses that they did call to testify. The defense failed to investigate and present Christopher's drug abuse history, his mental functioning, his mental illness, and the effects of his childhood abuse on his development and behavior.

Subsequent to his sentence of death, clinical psychologist Robert L. Smith evaluated Christopher. Dr. Smith found that Christopher "was the victim of a dysfunctional home environment..., had a self-absorbed and helpless mother..., and had no loving and supportive male role-model...(his natural father being distant and critical, his stepfather being inconsistent and emotionally and physically abusive.)" He concluded that Christopher had a "longstanding history of abusing alcohol and marijuana, beginning at age 13... and suffered from a schizotypal personality disorder."

The psychological effects on Christopher of growing up in this alcoholic and abusive environment provide compelling mitigating factors which a jury should have had available when asked to consider why a seventeen year old, with no prior history of violence and no criminal record, would commit this murder. None of this clinical evidence was ever heard or considered by the sentencing jury.

CHRISTOPHER DEEPLY REGRETS HIS CRIME AND HAS BECOME A PRODUCTIVE MEMBER OF PRISON SOCIETY

According to many people who have come to know him, Christopher has been a model prisoner, working with religious groups and prevention programs designed to keep teenagers from committing crimes. In his own words, "I am definitely sorry for all of the suffering I've caused people especially the victims, I just wish there was a way to make things right. I wish I could let people know how genuinely I've had to deal with it for the eight years I've been in prison and had to look in the mirror everyday...I want to continue to help troubled teens, as I once was, and I presently get the opportunity to in a Youth Enlightenment Program (Y.E.P.) that we have here at this prison.... I came to death row a very messed up, drug addicted, 17-year-old runaway that had to grow up here in the worst of prison realities. I've had to wake up every day facing the pain and suffering I've caused others...."


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The Case Against the Juvenile Death Penalty

EXECUTING JUVENILE OFFENDERS RUNS COUNTER TO BASIC AMERICAN STANDARDS OF DECENCY AND FAIRNESS

The execution of a juvenile offender is contrary to fundamental principles of American justice which punishes according to the degree of culpability and reserves the death penalty for 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.

Indeed, immaturity is the reason we do not allow those under eighteen to assume the major responsibilities of adulthood such as military combat service, voting, entering into contracts, drinking alcohol or making medical decisions. A number of organizations including the American Bar Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the Children's Defense Fund, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Mental Health Association have taken a stand against the juvenile death penalty.

In April 2002, Indiana became the latest state to abolish the juvenile death penalty, raising the total number of states that bar the execution of juvenile offenders to 28. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia now bar the execution of juvenile offenders by law and twelve states do not have capital punishment. If one adds the number of states which are now considering, or have recently considered, bills to raise the eligibility age for the death penalty to age eighteen, including Missouri, Texas (a bill passed the House), Florida (a bill passed unanimously the Senate), Nevada, Arizona, Kentucky, and Mississippi, it is clear that a consensus is emerging against the execution of juvenile offenders.

In the Midwest, a region that is not as supportive of capital punishment as other regions of the country, evolving standards of decency decry the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders. A recent survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center found that only 31.5 % of Midwesterners support using the death penalty against juvenile offenders. Now that Indiana has repealed its juvenile death penalty, Missouri is the lone Midwestern state with the juvenile death penalty on its statute books.

EXECUTING JUVENILE OFFENDERS IS CONTRARY TO INTERNATIONAL LAW

In continuing to execute juvenile offenders, the United States acts in defiance of substantial international consensus and law. Indeed, such executions have all but ended around the world, except in the United States. In the last decade, the United States has executed more juvenile offenders than all the world's nations combined. Since 1990, only seven countries are reported to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years of age at the time of the crime: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The nations of Pakistan, and Yemen have since abolished the juvenile death penalty, while Saudi Arabia and Nigeria deny that they have executed juvenile offenders.

In the last three years the number of nations that execute juvenile offenders has dwindled to only three: Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States. Moreover, just this past year, Iran stated that it no longer executes juvenile offenders while the leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo commuted the death sentences of four juvenile offenders.

The death penalty for juvenile offenders is expressly prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the American Convention of Human Rights. While the United States has not yet ratified the CRC and specifically reserved its right to execute juveniles when ratifying the ICCPR, the execution of Christopher Simmons would further alienate the United States from the international community. Moreover, it would further damage our legitimacy as a world leader in the protection and promotion of human rights, particularly the rights of children.

AVAILABLE ACTION

Under Missouri law, the Governor has the exclusive power to commute a sentence of death to life in prison. Please write to:

Governor Bob Holden
State Capitol Building
Room 216
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: 573-751-3222
Fax: 573-751-1495
E-mail: Use this form on the Governor's web site.

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Additional Information

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Clemency Letters

Read a selection of clemency appeals sent to the Governor requesting Christopher Simmons' sentence be commuted to life in prison.

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Media Attention

Return to the Juvenile Death Penalty Home Page


ABA Juvenile Justice Committee
740 15th Street, NW • Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202.662.1520 • Fax: 202.662.1501