Kids On Death Row Essay
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Even though they are just kids, should they be tried as adults? The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the execution of children as young as sixteen is not cruel and unusual punishment. Out of thirty-eight states with the death penalty, thirteen have set the minimum age for death at eighteen; four states set the minimum at seventeen; nine set the minimum age at sixteen; twelve have no minimum age specified. In 1996, prosecutors in the state of Mississippi sought the death penalty for juveniles as young as thirteen years of age (1998, February 17). In 1999, a Texas legislator announced his plan to lower the state’s minimum age to eleven. The youngest person killed since World War II in the United States was George Stinny, a fourteen year-old black boy. George Stinny was so small that when he was being executed his mask fell off.
Some argue that children mature enough to murder are mature enough to be punished for it. The death penalty is usually the last alternative for justice. Miriam Shehane, president of Victims of Crime and Leniency says, “I think when my kids were 15 or 16 they knew better than to kill someone.” A victims’-rights movement based in Montgomery, Alabama says, “If someone does adult crime, they are acting as adults, and they have to take responsibility” (1998, May 3). Shehane contends that capital punishment is not only for those with long legacies of criminality but also for anyone, teens included, who commits singularly horrific crimes. Republican Governor Pete Wilson of California has suggested that fourteen year-olds should be eligible for the death penalty. The spokesman for Wilson, Sean Walsh, explained why Wilson was suggesting this. Walsh thought that gangs in California often use underage triggermen because the gangs know that, if the triggermen are caught, they will not be subject to capital punishment. Lowering the minimum age, he argues, would change that practice. In Texas, Pitts is proposing a five point plan where he wants kids as young as 10-years-old to be certified to stand trial as adults. He wants determinant sentencing eliminated when crimes are pre-mediated. The plan allows juveniles to be sentenced to life without parole (1998, May 3).
Currently, seventy-four juveniles offenders are waiting to be executed on America’s death rows. Since 1990, only six countries have executed people for crimes they committed as kids: Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United States (1998, February 17). The United States has executed more children than the other five countries combined. On average, for every seven people executed, one person is found innocent. For example, Shareef Cousin was convicted on false testimony. The eyewitness was not able to identify the murderer, but the day of the trial she was “100 percent, absolutely sure” that Shareef was the murderer (1999, February 8). By coincidence, the testimony given by the eyewitness the day...
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