Capital punishment for juveniles in the United States

Capital punishment for juveniles in the United States existed until March 1, 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court banned it in Roper v. Simmons.

Pre-Furman history

Since 1642, (in the Thirteen Colonies, the United States under the Articles of Confederation, and the current United States), an estimated 364 juvenile offenders have been put to death by states and the federal government.

The youngest person to be executed in the 20th century was George Stinney, electrocuted in South Carolina at the age of 14 on June 16, 1944. The youngest person ever to be sentenced to death in the United States was James Arcene, a Native American, for his role in a robbery and murder committed when he was ten years old. He was, however, 23 years old when he was actually executed on June 18, 1885.^[1] The last execution of a juvenile was convicted murderer Leonard Shockley, who died in the Maryland gas chamber on April 10, 1959, at the age of 17. No one has been under the age of 19 at the time of execution since at least 1964.^[2][3]

Post-Furman history

Pre-Roper minimum ages for executions by state

  No capital punishment

  Minimum age of 18

  Minimum age of 17

  Minimum age of 16

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, 22 people have been executed for crimes committed while they were under the age of 18. All of the 22 executed individuals were males. Twenty-one of them were age 17 when the crime occurred; one, Sean Sellers (executed on February 4, 1999, in Oklahoma), was 16 years old when he murdered his mother, stepfather, and a store clerk.

Due to the slow process of appeals since 1976, none was actually under the age of 18 at the time of execution.

In Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988), the U.S. Supreme Court first held unconstitutional imposition of the death penalty for crime committed aged 15 or younger.

But in the 1989 case Stanford v. Kentucky, it upheld capital punishment for crimes committed aged 16 or 17. Justice Scalia's plurality part of his opinion famously criticized Justice Brennan’s dissent by accusing it to "replace judges of the law with a committee of philosopher-kings".^[4]

Justice O’Connor was the key vote in both cases, being the lone justice to concur in the two.

Sixteen years later, Roper v. Simmons overruled Stanford. Justice Kennedy, who concurred to Scalia’s opinion in Stanford, instead wrote the opinion of the court in Roper and became the key vote. Justice O’Connor dissented.

Before 2005, of the 38 U.S. states that allow capital punishment:

• 19 states and the federal government had set a minimum age of 18,
• 5 states had set a minimum age of 17, and
• 14 states had explicitly set a minimum age of 16, or were subject to the Supreme Court's imposition of that minimum.

At the time of the Roper v. Simmons decision, there were 71 juvenile offenders awaiting execution on death row: 13 in Alabama; four in Arizona; three in Florida; two in Georgia; four in Louisiana; five in Mississippi; one in Nevada; four in North Carolina; two in Pennsylvania; three in South Carolina; 29 in Texas; and one in Virginia. Detailed summaries of each of these offenders can be found here.

List of juvenile offenders executed in the United States since 1976

Number	Date	Name	Age (at Offense)	Age (at Execution)	Sex	State	Method	Source
1	September 11, 1985	Rumbaugh, Charles FrancisCharles Francis Rumbaugh	17	28	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[5]
2	January 10, 1986	Roach, James TerryJames Terry Roach	17	25	M	South Carolina	Electrocution	[6]
3	May 15, 1986	Pinkerton, Jay KellyJay Kelly Pinkerton	17	24	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[7]
4	May 18, 1990	Prejean, DaltonDalton Prejean	17	30	M	Louisiana	Electrocution	[8]
5	February 11, 1992	Garrett, Johnny FrankJohnny Frank Garrett	17	28	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[9]
6	July 1, 1993	Harris, Curtis PaulCurtis Paul Harris	17	31	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[10]
7	July 28, 1993	Lasley, FrederickFrederick Lasley	17	29	M	Missouri	Lethal injection	[11]
8	August 24, 1993	Cantu, Ruben MontoyaRuben Montoya Cantu	17	26	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[12]
9	December 7, 1993	Burger, ChristopherChristopher Burger	17	33	M	Georgia	Electrocution	[13]
10	April 24, 1998	Cannon, Joseph JohnJoseph John Cannon	17	38	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[14]
11	May 18, 1998	Carter, Robert AnthonyRobert Anthony Carter	17	34	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[15]
12	October 14, 1998	Wright, Dwayne AllenDwayne Allen Wright	17	24	M	Virginia	Lethal injection	[16]
13	February 5, 1999	Sellers, Sean RichardSean Richard Sellers	16	29	M	Oklahoma	Lethal injection	[17]
14	January 10, 2000	Thomas, Douglas ChristopherDouglas Christopher Thomas	17	26	M	Virginia	Lethal injection	[18]
15	January 13, 2000	Roach, Steve EdwardSteve Edward Roach	17	23	M	Virginia	Lethal injection	[19]
16	January 25, 2000	McGinnis, Glen CharlesGlen Charles McGinnis	17	27	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[20]
17	June 22, 2000	Graham, Gary LeeGary Lee Graham	17	36	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[21]
18	October 22, 2001	Mitchell, Gerald LeeGerald Lee Mitchell	17	33	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[22]
19	May 28, 2002	Beazley, NapoleonNapoleon Beazley	17	25	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[23]
20	August 8, 2002	Jones, T. J.T. J. Jones	17	25	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[24]
21	August 28, 2002	Patterson, Toronto MarkkeyToronto Markkey Patterson	17	24	M	Texas	Lethal injection	[25]
22	April 3, 2003	Hain, Scott AllenScott Allen Hain	17	32	M	Oklahoma	Lethal injection	[26]

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States
• Furman v. Georgia, United States Supreme Court decision that temporarily abolished capital punishment in the U.S.
• Gregg v. Georgia
• Roper v. Simmons
• Stanford v. Kentucky
• Thompson v. Oklahoma

References

1. Before the needles
2. Best Web
3. Juvenile News and Developments - Previous Years
4. "Stanford v. Kentucky". law.cornell.edu. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
5. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #048 - Charles Rumbaugh
6. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #051 - James Terry Roach
7. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #057 - Jay Pinkerton
8. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #128 - Dalton Prejean
9. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #161 - Johnny Garrett
10. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #207 - Curtis Harris
11. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #209 - Frederick Lasley
12. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #214 - Ruben Cantu
13. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #224 - Christopher Burger
14. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #455 - Joseph Cannon
15. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #460 - Robert A. Carter
16. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #485 - Dwayne Allen Wright
17. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #512 - Sean Richard Sellers
18. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #601 - Douglas Christopher Thomas
19. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #604 - Steve Edward Roach
20. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #609 - Glen Charles McGinnis
21. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #648 - Gary Lee Graham
22. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #737 - Gerald Lee Mitchell
23. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #779 - Napoleon Beazley Archived February 8, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
24. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #789 - T. J. Jones
25. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #795 - Toronto Markkey Patterson
26. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney - The Death Penalty - #843 - Scott Allen Hain

External links

• Juvenilles: Death Penalty Worldwide Academic research database on the laws, practice, and statistics of capital punishment for every death penalty country in the world.
• Death Penalty Information Center – Juvenile Offenders Who Were On Death Row