[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Hi Kathy,
I dug up a little more information on America killing those who commit
crimes before their 18th birthday and included the mentally feeble who are
not adult in their ability to think. The kids, like all those awaiting the
death penalty in the U.S., have to wait a lengthy period before the sentence
is actually carried out. If you put puppies in cages until they became dogs
and then kicked them to death, it is wrong to say you are kicking puppies to
death I suppose. With it understood that "killing kids" means killing those
who commit crimes under 18 I offer the following:
>From http://www.ncadp.org/facts.html [This is an outfit lobbying against
the death penalty]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. leads the world in killing kids
Since 1990, only 6 countries have executed people for crimes they committed as
children: Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran... and the United
States. The U.S. has executed more children than any of the other countries.
Every major international human rights treaty expressly prohibits executing
people for crimes committed before the age of 18.
160 children have been sentenced to death in the U.S. since 1973.
Government electrocution, gassing and lethal injecting of kids doubled in the
last decade.
There's no limit to how low we can go
The US Supreme Court has ruled that the execution of children as young as 16
is not "cruel and unusual" punishment. It has yet to make a definitive
statement about children under 16.
Of the 38 states with the death penalty: 13 have set the minimum age for death
at 18; 4 states set the minimum at 17; 9 set it at 16; 12 have no minimum age.
In 1996, Mississippi prosecutors sought the death penalty for juveniles as
young as 13 years of age.
Most often the US kills children of color
2 out of 3 children sent to death row are people of color.
Historically, 2 out of 3 people executed for crimes they committed as children
have been African American. During this century, the ratio has jumped to 3 out
of 4.
Of the nine girls executed in US history, 8 were Black and 1 was American
Indian.
The youngest person executed since WWII in the US was George Stinney, a 14
year-old black boy who was so small his mask fell off while he was being
electrocuted by the state of South Carolina.
The Federal Government has imposed the death penalty against American Indian
children for crimes they committed as young as 10-years-old.
Mental Competency and the Death Penalty
Over the past thirty years the number of mentally incompetent people being
executed has increased steadily.
A person who suffers from mental retardation typically has a below average
intellect and lacks the kind of adaptive behavior which normally develops
during childhood.
Currently, there are more than 300 people on death row know to have mental
retardation. Some estimates say that 10% of the death row population may be
afflicted with mental retardation.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, thirty-one people with metal
retardation have been executed in twelve different states..
Of the 31 mentally retarded people executed since 1976, 19 of them have been
within the past five years.
Executing the mentally incompetent does not serve justice.
In 1989, the Supreme Court admitted that "mental retardation is a factor that
may wel lessen a defendant's culpability for a capital offense."
That same year, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution in which
they stated that no one with mental retardation should be sentenced to to
death or executed because to do so would violate contemporary standards of
decency.
Defendents with mental incompetency are unable to appreciate the consequences
of their actions.
Generally, people suffering from mental retardation are eager to please
others. This means that they will often answer yes to questions even when they
don't fully understand what they are being asked.
Jerome Bowden did sign a statement confessing to murder, but only because the
police told him it would be to his benfit. It was on the sole basis of this
confession, would Jerome could not even read, that he was convicted and
executed by the state of Georgia.
Virginia executed Morris Odell Mason, who had been diagnosed as mentally
retarded, in 1985. On his way to the execution chamber, he told another
inmate, "When I get back, I'm gonna show him how I can play basketball as good
as he can." Mason was 32 at the time of his death and clearly did not
understand his impending fate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
from "Time:"
"The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that
executes juvenile offenders: criminals whose alleged
offenses were committed when they were under the age of 18.
There are only six countries in the world that are known to
have executed juvenile offenders in the '90s: Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, Yemen--and the U.S." "Even
China and Russia have banned the use of the death penalty
against children."
"The U.S. has executed six juvenile offenders this
decade--more than any other country. A 1988 Supreme Court
ruling (Thompson v. Oklahoma) is widely interpreted as
prohibiting the execution of offenders who committed crimes
when under the age of 16, but individual states can set
higher minimum ages. Of the 38 states that allow the death
penalty, 13 set the age at 18, four set it at age 17, and 21
have a minimum of 16 years of age or no minimum at all."
"Some argue that children mature enough to murder are mature
enough to be punished for it. "I think when my kids were 15
or 16 they knew better than to kill someone," says Miriam
Shehane, president of Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL),
a victims'-rights group based in Montgomery, Ala. "If
someone does adult crime, they are acting as adults, and
they have to take responsibility." Shehane contends that
capital punishment is not only for those with long legacies
of criminality but also for anyone, teens included, who
commits singularly horrific crimes."
>Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>
>Hi Terry :) My replies are below.
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> The laws I gave you were the most recent I found. I will be glad for any
>> updates.
>
>If you use current laws why did you have to go back 50 years to find a
>case to support your argument? Don't you see my point? The case you used
>was not under the guidelines of the current laws.
Arguments against the death penalty is that it does not deter, is very
expensive, may even increase murder and kills innocent people. I never even
offered the arguments.
The killing of kids is a continuing part of our history. We are still doing
much the same thing and many want to execute children younger.
>> If a 16-year-old commits a murder and is sentenced to die in a subsequent
>> trial, you may find comfort in his sitting in prison for a decade or two
>> while he waits for his death sentence to be carried out. My interpretation
>> is that we kill kids, one of only 6 countries that do. There are currently
>> a number of men sitting on death row for murders committed when they
>were juveniles.
>
>Oh since kids kill we should just turn our heads? I mean they are just
>innocent children right? I don't buy that,
Strawman 0 Kathy 1
Not one person I know wants to just let juvenile killers go. Some should
never see freedom again. But that hardly means we need to kill them.
>I live under the policy if
>you're old enough to do the crime your old enough to accept the
>punishment. No matter who kills their victims are still dead and justice
>needs to be carried out.
And I beg to differ. We have always considered extenuating circumstances,
e.g. insanity, incitement, etc. I think the recent moves to free battered
wives who have killed their batterer long overdue. Age is just one of many
circumstances that should be considered.
>BTW those men sitting on death row seems to me
>they at least got something their victims didn't a chance to prepare and
>to say good-bye to their families, why is it that we should listen to
>the pleas of the murderers when they themselves decided to ignore the
>pleas of their victims? What makes them better than the people they
>murdered?
What is different is that we are more humane than the murderers. If we were
sensible we wouldn't kill them at all.
>> I remember the 1940's quite well. Slave ships are before my time.
>
>Then you should have known that your argument and example didn't match
>up.
>--
>Kathy E
The statistics I gave you tell a different story, Kathy.
Best, Terry
"Lawyer - one trained to circumvent the law" - The Devil's Dictionary
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