NEWS STORY: Religious Groups, Others Urge Court to End Juvenile Death Penalty

c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ A wide array of nearly 30 religious groups have called on the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw the execution of minors. The high court is expected to hear oral arguments for Roper v. Simmons, a juvenile death penalty case, when its new term opens in the fall. On […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ A wide array of nearly 30 religious groups have called on the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw the execution of minors.

The high court is expected to hear oral arguments for Roper v. Simmons, a juvenile death penalty case, when its new term opens in the fall.


On Monday (July 19) denominations that typically find little theological common ground joined to submit a friend-of-the-court brief in which they urged the court to heed “evolving standards of decency” and stop states from applying the death penalty to youths under 18 years old.

Signatories to the brief include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Greek Orthodox Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the American Jewish Committee, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

“We are pleased that representatives of a broad cross section of religious groups in the United States _ reflecting Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist traditions _ have joined in this effort,” said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington and chairman of the USCCB Domestic Policy Committee.

“It is our shared conviction that because of their age, juveniles lack the psychological maturity and judgment of adults and therefore should not be treated as adults for purposes of capital crimes,”the cardinal said.

Instead of imposing the “most severe and irreversible punishment our courts can impose,” McCarrick said that “society has an obligation to hold out hope for the reform of those who as youths commit crimes, even the most terrible crimes.”

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said that “every major Jewish denomination is fundamentally opposed to the death penalty for minors” and that six other Jewish organizations have signed on to the brief.

“Though the Bible calls for execution for dozens of offenses,” Saperstein said, “over 2,000 years of rabbinic wisdom teach us to reject an ultimate punishment that removes even the possibility of redemption and rehabilitation. Our opposition is even stronger in the case of juveniles, who do not have the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.”


Fifteen briefs opposing the death penalty for juveniles have been filed. Signatories include 48 nations, 18 Nobel Peace Prize laureates and a host of human rights, medical and legal groups.

But a lawyers group representing six states that allow the execution of murderers who were 16 and 17 when they committed the crime filed a brief arguing that the practice should continue. These lawyers represent Alabama, Delaware, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Virginia, which are among the 19 states that allow the execution of 16- and 17-year-old killers.

“Our experience strongly indicates that a bright-line rule categorically exempting 16- and 17-year-olds from the death penalty _ no matter how elaborate the plot, how sinister the killing, or how sophisticated the cover-up _ would be arbitrary at best and downright perverse at worst,” the lawyers’ brief says.

The American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Society of Adolescent Psychiatry and American Academy of Children and Adolescents disagree. Together, they filed a brief in which they tell the court that new research reveals adolescents’ brain structure _ specifically, those areas of the brain affecting decision making and impulse control _ may be incomplete.

Among the Nobel laureates were the Dalai Lama, former President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former South African President F.W. de Klerk.

In the last five years, the United States has executed 13 juvenile offenders, according to a brief filed by former U.S. diplomats.


All 25 countries in the European Union and 23 others have called on the United States to stop the practice.

DEA/PH END BURKE

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