Death Penalty for Juvenile

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 when the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty did not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, 22 people have been executed for crimes committed while they were under the age of 18 (Legal Information Institute, n.d.-a). In a 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the execution of people who were under 18 at the time of their crimes violates the federal constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishments, reasoning that such offenders are less culpable than adult offenders who committed the same crimes (Legal Information Institute, n.d.-b).

For this Discussion, you will identify and examine a case regarding the death penalty for juveniles and construct an evidence-based argument for or against the use of the death penalty for juvenile populations.

References:

Legal Information Institute. (n.d.-a). Death penalty. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/death_penalty

Legal Information Institute. (n.d.-b). Roper v. Simmons (03-633) 543 U.S. 551 (2005). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-633.ZS.html

Identify one case in the Assignment Learning Resource, “Capital Punishment of Young Adults in Light of Evolving Standards of Science and Decency: Why Ohio Should Raise the Minimum Age for Death Penalty Eligibility to Twenty-Five (25),” and consider how you might provide an evidence-based argument for 1 of the following positions:

Death penalty should be used for ages 18+, 21+, or 25+ (choose 1 age group)

Death penalty should be reinstated for juveniles

Death penalty should be used on juveniles based on their crime