Teenagers and the Death Penalty This paper will d

The death penalty has existed throughout American history and its continued use indicates that it has been accepted as a means of punishment for individuals convicted of the most serious crimes. The U.S. Supreme Court as a whole has never questioned its existence as a legitimate form of punishment. Although the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court has never considered the death penalty to be cruel and unusual. Indeed, few American courts have considered the death penalty to be cruel and unusual and no statute authorizing the death penalty has been struck down on the basis that the death penalty itself is cruel and unusual.

Historically, juveniles were not executed frequently in the American justice system. While many were sentenced to die, many fewer were actually executed. The first execution of a minor on American soil occurred in 1642 in Plymouth Colony. The youngest person to be executed was ten years old, but the vast majority were at least fifteen years old at the time they committed their capital cr

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for defendants under the age of sixteen can argue that this issue has not been settled and thus the imposition of the death penalty on such defendants is not unconstitutional. In addition, prosecutors seem to have the support of the public, which is lobbying for tougher criminal laws. For example, the Florida legislature debated a bill in 1994 which would have allowed for the imposition of the death penalty on fourteen-year-old defendants. In 1993, widespread and strident opposition forced the withdrawal of a provision in the crime bill before Congress which would have prohibited the imposition of capital punishment on juvenile defendants in federal criminal cases. The increasing public support for the death penalty in juvenile cases is fueled by the increasingly heinous nature of violent juvenile crime. The defendant in Stanford was convicted of robbing a gas station, kidnapping the female attendant, repeatedly raping and sodomizing her, and then killing her with two point-blank gunshots to the head. The defendant in Thompson was convicted of taking part in the murder of his former brother-in-law, who was shot twice in the head, cut in the throat and abdomen, and then thrown into a river with blocks chained to his body.
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Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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