Executing child criminals
Sixteen states set 18 as the minimum age at the time of commission of a crime for a person to be eligible for the death penalty. Five states have 17 years as the minimum age including FL, GA, NH, NC, TX. Seventeen states set 16 as the minimum age including AL, AZ, AR, DE, ID, KY, LA, MS, MO, NV, OK, PA, SC, SD, UT, VA, WY.
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| Blue: States with no Death Penalty Yellow: States that have a Death Penalty |
1988: Execution banned where criminal was 15 years of age or younger: In the U.S. Supreme Court case Thompson v. Oklahoma, a boy had been convicted of having actively participating in a brutal murder when he was 15 years of age. The court ruled that capital punishment in the U.S. was unconstitutional if applied to a child who was 15 years of age or younger at the time of the offense
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1989: Execution OK if criminal was 16 or 17 years of age: In the case of Stanford v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court, allowed the executions of two males who were children at the time they committed murder. Kevin Stanford was about 17 years, 4 months of age. Heath Wilkins was about 16 years, 6 months of age. The vote was 5 to 4 -- a common result on rulings involving morality and ethics.
"Execution of Juveniles in the U.S. and Other Countries." Execution of Juveniles in the U.S. and Other Countries. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2015
That's interesting how the Supreme Court decided that at 15 you cannot receive the death penalty and a year later decide that if you are 16 or 17, still a minor, then you are able to receive it. Honestly I think that if you are a minor you shouldn't be able to be sentenced to death at all and I hope the Supreme Court changed their opinion about executing any minor.
ReplyDeleteIt's very odd. You are a minor if you are under the age of 18. However, you can still receive the death penalty as a minor raises many questions. It's a slippery slope with this issue. In the future, the death penalty age could be increased or decrease. I hope that the Supreme Court would raise the age because it seems immoral. I'm not saying that underage criminals who are murderers should get a free pass. There should be an alternate for those cases.
ReplyDeletethis is really good info and i like the whole blog as a whole. I also found it interesting that they can execute a minor when they turn 16 but if they're 15 they wont execute them. That's not right in my opinion but i guess that's the law. Good information, and good blog!
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