death penalty news October 20, 2004
Juvenile Death Penalty To the Editor: As you note in "Juveniles and the Death Penalty" (editorial, Oct. 13), when the Supreme Court decides whether executing offenders under 18 violates the Eighth Amendment, it looks to evolving standards of decency as a key determining factor. There has been a national movement away from the juvenile death penalty as more and more states have abolished it. Even in those states where the juvenile death penalty still exists, fewer and fewer offenders who were under 18 at the time of the crime are being executed. Yet another factor that should be considered by the Supreme Court when looking at evolving standards of decency is the overwhelming national consensus among the medical community. More than 400 medical and adolescent development experts, three former United States surgeons general and numerous leading organizations have formed a widespread scientific consensus that minors do not yet possess the maturity and mental capacity required to justify the imposition of the ultimate adult punishment. Leonard S. Rubenstein Executive Director Physicians for Human Rights Washington, Oct. 13, 2004 (source: Letter to the Editor, New York Times)
