High Court Ends Death Penalty for Youths

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aquariumfishguy

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Jul 14, 2003
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By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, were unconstitutionally cruel.

It was the second major defeat at the high court in three years for supporters of the death penalty. Justices in 2002 banned the execution of the mentally retarded, also citing the Constitution's Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments.

The court had already outlawed executions for those who were 15 and younger when they committed their crimes.

Tuesday's ruling prevents states from making 16- and 17-year-olds eligible for execution.

Currently, 19 states allow executions for people under age 18: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Texas and Virginia.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050301/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_death_penalty

It's about time, maybe we aren't as close to apes as once thought.
 
I am about to take some major flack. I am of the opinion that 16 and 17 year olds know the difference between right and wrong. I believe they are ultimately responsible for their own actions. I believe by taking a life, you forfeit your own. I believe it is cruel and unusual to house someone from age 16 until their death some 40 to 80 years later in a cell. I belive it is cruel and unusual to expect citizens to foot the pricetag associated with high security prisoners for the length they already do.

Here's what the problems are. In an ideal world, we wouldn;t need prisons at all. In an almost ideal world, prisons would reform and be self-sufficient through raising crops, selling items etc. In a world less ideal than that the justice system would be above error and we would know the very truth of guilt or innocence so the appeals process could be shortened or altogether removed. We do not live in an ideal world. Prisons, police forces, armies, death penalties, accepting only individually wrapped candies at Halloween, Amber Alerts, Milk Cartons with missing people on them, McGruff the Crime Dog, locking your doors at night, praying everyday for your child's safety, monitoring their TV and internet usage, curfews, breathalyzer tests... all are necessary evils. Our world is far from perfect. I don't care if you agree with me or not. Also, under this law, wouldn't the two boys from Columbine have been spared, had they not taken the coward's way? Sorry. I don't really think that's right.
 
Ditto. I in no way believe it is a sign of cultural "backwardness" that we have the death penalty in this country. I don't necessarily believe that it is a deterrent to crime, but I do believe it is a fitting punishment for certain crimes. The way I figure it, murder is a "cruel and unusual" way to die and therefore it is fitting that the perpetrator die in a like manner.
 
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I believe that you're living in a world of fear Harlock. I'm not saying that some of it isn't justified, and much of what you listed off is necessary or at least a good precaution. However, the odds are heavily in your favour of avoiding any serious crime and sadly locks will do little to stop someone entering your house if they decide that they want to.

Columbine was a tragedy, but I believe that those particular boys could be reformed. I also believe that those who have perpetrated the other similar situations can be reformed. I asl believe that until our society truly takes the stand that bullying and picking on those smaller, younger, or just plain unable to defend themselves is wrong that there will be future incidents. I don't just mean that we have to have tougher laws against bullying, we do but that alone (a top-down approach) won't solve the problem. The solution must come from a bottom-up approach, parents, society, and the media must decide that bullying is a truly bad thing, it must be viewed as so reprehensible that those who bully are viewed as complete scum. Right now this is not the case. Right now bullies get a slap on the wrist from schools and are largely ignored by society. The media often portrays them and their actions as comedic and people in general look the other way. For a brief moment after any of these Columbine-esque tragedies there's always a brief outcry against it, but like most things, wait long enough and it goes away. It's much like who people yell and scream when gas prices increase, the gas companies raise the price by 0.10 then drop it by 0.01 or 0.02 and everyone shuts up and acts content. So the cycle continues. Columbine, and similar events, showed us what effects bullying (combined with absentee parents) can have, but simply locking away those who carry out these terrible crimes is not a solution, merely a reaction to stimulous. It's like fighting algae, it all you do is take out what you can see, you always get more, unless you fix the root(s) of the problem it's just gonna come back.

Ooof! Sorry about that rant, I guess we're sufficiently off topic now. :rolleyes: Normally this would have washed over me, but I woke up this morning considering Columnbine, must've dreamed something...
 
Bullying has been a fact of life since the dawn of man. It appears in every culture around the world. Yet it rarely leads to the type of behavior displayed at Columbine. Why? People get over it. Its a part of growing up. If we start to pamper and shelter children from all the bad things in the world what kind of adults are they going to become? I'll tell you what kind. Adults who don't have the ability to cope when things don't go perfectly. I read an article in Time or Newsweek a while back that college graduates are having a tough time in the workplace. They don't know how to handle criticism or people telling them their wrong because they had teachers that were afraid of damaging a child's psyche if they came down on them too hard.
 
Ok... wow. I didn't want to start a debate. I'll just say that those who are not in support of the death penalty would find this a semi-large step towards abolishing the death penalty in the United States. I need not go into the reasons for why I think the death penalty should be abolished, as I've already stated them in another post not too long ago (as did the rest of you).

The facts are out there, do some research on the effectiveness of the death penalty, and so on. Forming your own opinion is a given right.
 
I'll be hanging out with Harlock and Knife.

When I was 16, I knew something was right or wrong. I was capable of understanding consequences. If that age group is now incapable of doing so--somewhere we've gone terribly, terribly wrong.
 
As I already stated, who cares about the effectiveness of the death penalty?
And don't petend that you didn't expect this kind of reaction especially when you called those of us who support it as "close to being apes".
 
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