April 20, 2002

Bob Holden
Governor, State of Missouri
State Capital Building, Room 216
Post Office Box 720
Jefferson City, Missouri 65107

Re: Christopher Simmons Death Penalty

Dear Governor Holden:

I am writing to you in my capacity as an adolescent psychiatrist for 35 years and as Past President and representative of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, which speaks for psychiatrists who treat adolescents in the United States. We are, as a group, asking that you commute the death sentence of Christopher Simmons, who committed a murder when he was a 17 year old juvenile. We believe he was too immature in his brain development to control his actions and should not receive a penalty that more and more is reserved for adults. (The State of Indiana agrees with this position and has just created a new law which prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed below the age of 18.)

New proof has come to light in the last 2 years that the part of the brain (Pre-frontal Cortex) that allows people to think before they act and allows for healthy control of violent impulses is not yet developed at the age of 17, but begins to function between 18 and 24 years. These studies were performed at McClean Hospital, Harvard University (and are being repeated at the University of Illinois in Chicago) and demonstrated that 16 and 17 year olds are still children, incapable of thinking of consequences under stress and managing powerful impulses without adult help.

The Supreme Court of the United States, even without the physical proof we now have, concluded in 1988 that death was a "cruel and unusual punishment" for juveniles below age 16 because they were children and further wrote that if "prevailing standards" of States agreed in the future, that they would consider raising the age to 18. Recently, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Arizona have begun to deliberate this matter, in their respective legislatures. Also, organizations representing all of American Psychiatry along with the American Bar Association agree with this position and have joined together to bring our society to a more humane place.

Please consider sparing Christopher Simmons life.

Yours truly,

Mark A. Wellek MD.
Past President of American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry

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