Juvenile Death penalty

Are Juvenile’s too young and underdeveloped physically and mentally to be sentenced to death for the murders they commit? Or do they really know what the thoughts are going through their head and the consequences for the actions they take regarding the thoughts they are thinking? Could it be the genes they were born with made them commit the crimes, or it was that they grew up in poverty and had no other choice but to become criminals? With all these reasons and excuses should they still be sentenced to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors under the age of 18, and in some states 21 years of age?

Thirty-nine out of the fifty states in America authorize the death penalty, out of those thirty-eight only twenty-three allow offenders who commit murder under the age of eighteen be sentenced to the death penalty. The minimum age for the death penalty varies from state to state. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia all have a minimum age of sixteen to be sentenced to death. The states with the minimum age of seventeen are Florida, Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas. In Connecticut, New York and North

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If law enforcement would crack down on the curfews and punish the juveniles that did not obey it, they would be able to stop more of the juvenile crimes. A total of 365 people have been executed for juvenile crimes since 1642, 20,000 Americans have been executed since 1608. All suspects seventeen years of age and above are tried as adults in Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. Texas holds the most of these offenders on death row. Juvenile criminals have developed from our streets that are dark, dirty, dangerous, and are often dominated by raping, robbing and rampaging children, who are as young as six committing serious, sordid and sadistic crimes (Morgan Reynolds, pg.

A guilty criminal is someone who is a free moral agent and is confronted with the choices of what is right and what is wrong.

The juvenile death penalty is only being used in seven countries since 1990: China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

In order for the court to sentence someone to death they must consider a few factors before coming to a decision which include: The seriousness and type of offense and the manner in which it was committed, The sophistication and maturity of the juvenile as determined by consideration of his or her home life, environmental situation, emotional attitude, and pattern of living, The juvenile’s record and history, and the prospects for protecting the public and rehabilitating the juvenile. (DPIC)

The first known execution of a juvenile was Thomas Graunger, from Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts back in 1642. Many juveniles are well into their adulthood by the time their execution comes, it is usually six to twenty years an offender stays on death row.

One way to help cut back on the amount of juvenile crimes is to enforce a Government mandated curfew. Only twenty-two of those executions have been made after the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

The John Howard Society said “Poverty does not cause crime-if it did, then it would be women, not men, making up 98% of the prison population”. One of the biggest excuses used by juvenile delinquents and their attorney’s that they were raised in poverty and they knew better than to commit the crimes at fault. It is down to only seven due to international treaties and agreements.

Approximate Word count = 1107
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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