Missouri Action:
Christopher Simmons, Juvenile Offender facing execution in Missouri.

A jury convicted Christopher Simmons, white, aged 17, of first-degree murder and recommended that he be sentenced to death for the robbery, abduction and drowning murder of Ms. Shirley Crook. The trial court sentenced Simmons to death.

Simmons' present lawyers argue that he had inadequate legal representation in that his attorneys failed to introduce crucial mitigating circumstances such as his abusive childhood upbringing and a psychologist's diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder and drug and alcohol abuse.

Throughout his life, Christopher Simmons' stepfather was very abusive, physically and mentally to him. His stepfather, an alcoholic, would threaten, intimidate, scream at, and hit Simmons. When Chris was a young child, he took his stepson to a bar and fed him alcohol for the amusement of the other patrons. He took Simmons fishing and tied him to a tree so that he wouldn't wander away. The stepfather, would hold him down and squeeze Chris' pimples until they bled. Simmons' mother felt helpless. She was intimidated and afraid of her husband and never intervened to rescue her son from the abuse.

Chris' attorneys also argue that the interrogating officers took advantage of his youth. Simmons was taken out of school the day after Mrs. Crook was murdered and brought to the Fenton Police Department. He told police he did not want to answer their questions, however three officers from the Major Case Squad persisted, interrogating him at their headquarters for a few hours. No parent nor an attorney were present for this questioning.

According to attorneys, one officer told Simmons he was facing the death penalty and assured him that it was in his best interests to give a statement confessing to the crime. This falsely suggested that the courts would show him some leniency if he cooperated. Such questioning by law-enforcement officers would intimidate most individuals, but particularly a juvenile. He eventually confessed and gave a videotaped statement.

Critical evidence of Chris' abusive childhood and his mental profile were never introduced during trial. Through his extensive evaluation, a psychiatrist determined that because of his abusive environment, Chris was suspicious and unable to trust others. He was insecure and depressed and felt hopeless. In his home, Chris was unable to express anger, instead he kept it inside and resentment built. He was not taught how to control his impulses, and in fact, he learned the opposite from his stepfather. He expressed odd beliefs and magical thinking and used these fantasies, along with drugs and alcohol, to escape.

The psychological effects 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 would commit this murder. It is quite possible that the jury would not have sentenced him to death had his trial attorneys presented this information.

Background Information The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights prohibits the use of the death penalty against child offenders - defendants who were under the age o 18 at the time of the crime. When the USA ratified this treaty it reserved the right to execute child offenders. This "reservation" has been widely condemned as invalid, by organizations and bodies including the Human Rights Committee, the expert body that monitors compliance with the covenant. The Convention on the Rights of the Child makes the same prohibition. The USA and Somalia are the only two of 191 countries not to have ratified this. The prohibition on the use of the death penalty against child offenders is so widely respected that it has become a principle of customary international law, binding on all countries regardless of which treaties they have or have not ratified.

The USA has put 18 child offenders to death since it resumed executions on January 17, 1977. It accounts for more such executions in the past decade than have been documented in the rest of the world combined. In the last four years, such executions have occurred in Democratic Republic of Congo (1), Pakistan (1), Iran (3), and the USA (9). In December 2001, the President of Pakistan announced that he would commute the death sentences of all child offenders on death row in his country. In contrast to this, there are more than 80 prisoners on death row in the USA for crimes committed when they were 16 or 17.

The state of Missouri has executed 55 prisoners since it resumed executions in 1989, and is presently the third-highest executing state in the US behind Texas and Florida.

Recommended Action:
Call, fax and write to Bob Holden, Governor of Missouri, to ask him to commute this death sentence.

• Express deep concern that the state of Missouri intends to carry out a death sentence against Christopher Simmons, a Juvenile offender, this Spring;

• Express sympathy for the family of Shirley Crook, and explaining that you do not diminish the suffering that her death has caused.

• Note that the 16 states have banned the death penalty for juveniles, including most recently, Indiana.

• Point out that his execution would violate the international prohibition on the use of the death penalty against those under the age of 18 at the time of the offense, and that the US has executed more child offenders than the rest of the world combined;

• Note that Chris, who was 17 at the time, did not have a parent or attorney present during his interrogation;

• Note that his trial lawyers failed to present mitigating evidence of his abusive home and his mental disorder;

• Urge that his sentence be commuted to a prison sentence.

APPEALS TO:
Governor Bob Holden
Office of the Governor
Missouri Capitol Building, Room 218
PO Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0720

Phone: (573) 751-3222
Fax: (573) 751-1495

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