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Can you give me some information on the death penalty and when teenagers were included in this? I'm researching this topic for school and I need some sites or refrences about wether it is ethical for teenagers to be included in Capitol punishment. Thank you.
I am sorry that it took so long to answer this. For some reason, I thought that I had done so, previously.
Why Some "Juvenile" Murderers Should Qualify For The Death Penalty
Dudley Sharp
--No one disputes that some 16-17 year olds are as mature, in every way, with some of those 18 and older. Therefore, the argument against executing some 16-17 year old murderers is without merit, when it is based upon age, alone.
---Would anyone claim that a murderer was less culpable solely because they murdered someone one second, one minute, one week or one year before their 18th birthday? They shouldn't.
---claim: It is argued that because people have to be older to drink, vote, marry, etc., that it is hypocritical to say that some 16-17 year olds are mature enough to be death eligible for committing capital murder.
response: Untrue. If society so wished they could individually evaluate 16-17 years olds to determine which of those were as mature as 18-21 year olds and allow those to participate in those responsibilities and privileges. No one doubts that many would qualify.
Furthermore, there is a major difference between a social privilege and culpability for capital murder.
---claim: Some US states are in league with a number of horrible nations that execute those under age 18.
response: The US criminal justice system is quite different from those nations and as no one disputes that many 16-17 year olds are as mature as some 18 year olds, this argument means nothing.
--- No US states violate any international agreements with regard to executing those under 18.
--- The argument that the death penalty is a human rights violation (regardless of the age of the murderer) has no foundation. Those who claim that the death penalty is a human rights violation have failed to make their case.
--- In terms of proportionality, execution cannot be viewed as disproportionately severe in relation to the crime. The innocent murder victim did not earn or deserve their fate, whereas the murderer voluntarily took the lives of the innocent and thereby volunteered for the appropriate punishment available within that jurisdiction.
Criminal Study:
16-17 years old same as 18-24
"The study did not find differences between juveniles aged 16 and 17 and young adults(18-24) in abilities relevant to their competance to stand trial."
" . . . the performance of adolescents 16 and older did not differ from that of young adults(18-24), according to the researchers."
from Study Summary
www.mac-adoldev-juvjustice.org/competence%20study%20summary.pdf
from News Release
www.temple.edu/news_media/bb0302_593.html
Full study
www.mac-adoldev-juvjustice.org/juveniles'%20competence%20to%20stand%20trial%20(LHB).pdf
also, read the two most important decsions on this topic:
Sanford v Kentucky 492 U.S. 361
http://www2.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/foliocgi.exe/historic/query=stanford+v+kentu...
and
Thompson v Oklahoma 487 U.S. 815
in Thompson JUSTICE O'CONNOR concluded that:
1. Although a national consensus forbidding the execution of any person for a crime committed before the age of 16 very likely does exist, this conclusion should not unnecessarily be adopted as a matter of constitutional law without better evidence than is before the Court. The fact that the 18 legislatures that have expressly considered the question have set the minimum age for capital punishment at 16 or above, coupled with the fact that 14 other States have rejected capital punishment completely, suggests the existence of a consensus. However, the Federal Government and 19 States have authorized capital punishment without setting any minimum age, and have also provided for some 15-year-olds to be prosecuted as adults. These laws appear to render 15-year-olds death eligible, and thus pose a real obstacle to finding a consensus. [p*817] Moreover, although the execution and sentencing statistics before the Court support the inference of a consensus, they are not dispositive, because they do not indicate how many juries have been asked to impose the death penalty on juvenile offenders or how many times prosecutors have exercised their discretion to refrain from seeking the penalty. Furthermore, granting the premise that adolescents are generally less blameworthy than adults who commit similar crimes, it does not necessarily follow that all 15-year-olds are incapable of the moral culpability that would justify the imposition of capital punishment. Nor is there evidence that 15-year-olds as a class are inherently incapable of being deterred from major crimes by the prospect of the death penalty. Thus, there is the danger that any inference of a societal consensus drawn from the evidence in this case might be mistaken. Rather than rely on its inevitably subjective judgment about the best age at which to draw a line forbidding capital punishment, this Court should if possible await the express judgments of additional legislatures. Pp. 849-855 .
from
http://www2.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/foliocgi.exe/historic/query=[group+487+u!2Es!2E+815!3A]^[group+citemenu!3A]^[level+case+citation!3A]^[group+notes!3A]/doc/{@1}/hit_headings/words=4/hits_only?
Related Articles
Answers by Expert:
Dudley Sharp
Expertise
Any question specific to the death penalty.
Experience
Partial CV of Dudley Sharp
Re: For the death penalty
not updated for a while
This CV goes through a list of the three websites of Justice For All. If it doesn't all come through, please let me know.
Mr. Sharp, a former opponent of capital punishment, has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.
Partial List:
--- "Rethinking the Death Penalty", Nightline, ABCNews, 6/22/00. with former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Kogan. Go to:
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/transcripts/nl000522_trans.html
---- "The Death Penalty", This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts,
ABC News, 6/4/00 Appearance with Illinois Governor George Ryan, discussing
moratoriums and innocence issues.
--- "Death Penalty Update", The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 7/30/00 PBS. A
review of death penalty issues.
--- "The Death Penalty", Speaker, Annual meeting of the American
Corrections Association, San Antonio, Texas, 1997. Debate between myself and Richard Burr, a well known death penalty defense attorney and an anti death penalty activist.
--- "Death Penalty Debate", between Eric Zorn, an anti-death penalty
columnist with the Chicago Tribune, and Dudley Sharp. April-June, 2000.
Visits many of today's major death penalty issues in an in-depth format.
http://www.ericzorn.com/rhubarb/death/
--- "Capital punishment is an effective way to protect innocent people", May 27, 2000 - St. Louis Post Dispatch. Many more innocents will be put at risk by not executing. Scroll down about halfway to reach the letter at www.prodeathpenalty.com/news.htm
--- "Death on Hold?", Fort Worth Star Telegram, 2/5/00. Why a moratorium on executions is unwarranted.
www.startelegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:VIEWPOINT2/1:VIEWPOINT20205100.html
--- "Innocence and the Death Penalty", 4/16/00, Pro Death Penalty.com. An in
depth look at the concern for the innocence issue.
www.prodeathpenalty.com/Innocence.htm
--- "Bias on the death penalty", Richmond Times Dispatch, 4/23/01, deals with the racial issues. At www.timesdispatch.com/MGB5AB8IVLC.html
--- "Washington Journal", C-SPAN, 4/19/01. Death penalty moratorium issues, with Jane Henderson of the Quixote Center in Maryland, coordinator of the Equal Justice Project.
--- ABCNews.com, Taking Sides, essay "Exoneration Hype Exaggerated", 5/10/00. A brief essay regarding the absence of journalistic standards when dealing with issues of innocence and the death penalty. It is the second article down.
www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/TakingSides/takingsides7.html
--- "The Wrong Man, Letters to the Editor", 12/4/99. A response to aarticle on innocence and the death penalty (The Wrong Man", 11/99). Go to: www.prodeathpenalty.com/Wrong_Man.htm
--- "ABA's Proposed Moratorium Relies on Flimsy Facts", The Texas Lawyer,
March 16, 1997. An article addressing the inaccuracies of the American Bar Association in their call for a moratorium on executions.
--- Guest Lecturer, Senior Seminar, National Foreign Affairs Training Center,
US Department of State, March 30, 1999
---- "Innocence Defined", THE RECORD (Bergan County, New Jersey), 11/19/99. An op/ed addressing the lack of defined standards in the "innocence" discussion regarding the death penalty.
--- Testimony before the Pennsylvania State Senate Judiciary Committee,
February 2000. Death Penalty Moratorium legislation.
--- Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee, Death Penalty Testimony, July 1997.
Testimony regarding referendum on the death penalty and other death penalty
issues
--- Texas Legislature, testimony in both House and Senate regarding death
penalty issues and bills.
--- "Guilty as Charged", Wall Street Journal, A22, 6/28/00. Co-authored
with Dianne Clements, an article about the highly publicized case of executed
Texas murderer Gary Graham.
--- Reply to "Executioner's Swan Song" by Michael Kroll. Salon.com, 2/11/00.
Michael Kroll is a journalist and founder of The Death Penalty Information
Center, the leading information source of those opposed to capital
punishment. This is a published Letter reply to Kroll's 2/8/00 article.
www.salon.com/letters/2000/02/11/sat/index2.html
---"Proffitt argument is 'folly' ", North Carolina State University's The
Technician, 11/29/00. A letter reply. http://technicianonline.com/read/tol/opinion/001967.html
--- "Sen. Pat Leahy Dead Wrong On Death Penalty", aka "A different look at
the death penalty", 11/11/00, Saint Michael's College (Vermont)The MAGAZINE
A reply to Sen. Leahy. ("Dying an innocent death?", 11/9/00)
www.smcvt.edu/magazine/Campus/feedback.htm
--- :"DEATH PENALTY AND SENTENCING INFORMATION In the United States",
10/1/97. Pro Death Com Penalty .at http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html
This is a long report on many aspects of the death penalty. Although a bit out of date, it explores most of the false allegations against the death penalty. Much of the material has been significantly updated. Please inquire.
--- "Death Penalty in Black and White", IntellectualCapital.com, 6/24/99.
Visits various racial issues from the death penalty debate. at
http://speakout.com/activism/opinions/4010-1.html
---"Society Should See Difference Between Criminal, Punitive Acts", The
Daily Oklahoman, 06/28/1997. The title is self explanatory.
Chapters in Books
"Innocent People Have Not Been Executed", from Problems of Death, Opposing Viewpoints Series, Greenhaven Press, 2000
"The Death Penalty Should Be Retained", from Capital Punishment, Current Controversies, Greenhaven Press, 2000
Death Penalty Debates
-- American University, U. sponsored, Washington, DC, 10/30/00
---Louisiana Minority Correctional Workers Assn., Baton Rouge, La., 10/16/00
---South Texas College of Law, Black Law Students Assn., Houston, Texas, 10/25/00
---University of Texas Law School, sponsored jointly by The Federalist Society and The National Lawyers Guild, Austin, Texas, 4/9/01
and many others
For more, enter "dudley sharp" "death penalty" at www.google.com/search
Position: Mr. Sharp was Vice President, Political Director and member of the Board of Directors of JFA from July 1993, when JFA was founded, through January 2000. He opposed capital punishment until December 1995. He is now Resource Director for JFA.
JUSTICE FOR ALL is a criminal justice reform organization. Our focus is solely on violent crime issues and what we can do, within the criminal justice and legislative systems, to lessen injury to the innocent and to prosecute the guilty. To accomplish that goal, we are actively involved in community education, elections, legislation, victim's rights issues, including our involvement in many individual cases.
Mr. Sharp's e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com phone 713-623-6070
JFA websites
http://www.jfa.net/
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/
http://www.murdervictims.com/
Organizations
see experience
Publications
see experience
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