Juvenile Death Penalty

Juvenile Death Penalty

Introduction

For as long as there have been records of written law, there have been records of the use of death as the ultimate penalty. Put most simply, the death penalty is the right of the governing authority to take one's life as punishment for the commission of a criminal offense. For example, in 18th century B.C.E., the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon called for persons to be put to death for 25 specific crimes ranging from murder to theft. Perhaps most notably, the Draconian Code of Athens (7th century B.C.E.) deemed death the only punishment for all crimes. However, as societies have evolved and changed, so has the application of the death penalty, including restrictions upon the types of offenses and offenders that it can be applied to. One particular area of contention has been the application of this most severe punishment to children.

For example, in the 1st century C.E., King Aethelstand of England pronounced that a thief over the age of 12 could be sentenced to death; however, this law was later modified to increase the minimum age for execution to 16. Restricting the application of the death penalty to juveniles falls in line with the greater tradition of providing mitigated punishments to children for the commission of all crimes. For example, English common law deemed all children under the age of seven incapable of mens rea (guilty mind) and therefore innocent of any offenses, and deemed children between 7-14 years of age as having reduced culpability for offenses committed. English common law also extended a form of clemency to youths all the way up to age 21, indicating that while youths between 14 and 21 years of age could be held fully responsible for their actions, the defense could argue for mitigated punishments based on their youthful status. While the exact age of adulthood varies across time and place, as does the level of mitigation offered, the basic trend remains.

Thus, any discussion of the application of the death penalty to juveniles must encompass two distinct realms: first, issues specific to the use of the death penalty in general, including the basic legal principles surrounding the application of the death penalty; and second, a discussion of the unique attributes and circumstance of children in society, including the application of these principles to the special circumstance of the execution of juveniles.

Death Penalty Implementation: Legal Principles

America's modern system of justice has roots that are most often directly traced to the writing of Cesare Beccaria's classic essay, On Crimes and Punishment. One of the primary ideologies that emerged from the doctrine was that a punishment should be proportional to the harm caused by a crime. Implicit in this approach is the notion that the most severe penalty, death, should be reserved for only the severest of crimes. Thus, the array of crimes for which the death penalty was deemed appropriate began to narrow. Another important consideration inherent to this school of thought is that the offender's responsibility or ...