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Question
Do you think that a minor between the ages of 15 and 17 should be subject to the same punishments, ie. the death penalty, as adults?
Ms. Chavez:
My apologies for the delay. I have been out of town.
I believe that jurors should have the option to sentence some 16-17 year old murderers to either life or death.
There are a number of issues raised in opposition to 16-17 year old murderers being culpable for the death penalty. I have found that those arguments fail under review.
BRAIN SCIENCE & JUVENILE DEATH PENALTY -- NO HOLY GRAIL (1)
Brain data, particularly those on delayed frontal-lobe growth in adolescents, also need to be put in a cultural and historical perspective, Harvard's Kagan asserts. Frontal-lobe development presumably proceeds at roughly the same pace in teenagers everywhere. Yet current rates of teen violence and murder vary from remarkably low to alarmingly high from country to country, he notes.
If incomplete brains automatically reduce adolescents' capacity to restrain their darker urges, "we should be having Columbine incidents every week," he adds.
UCLA's Elizabeth Sowell, another prominent brain-development researcher, takes a dim view of the movement to apply neuroscience to the law. She says that no current research connects specific brain traits of typical teenagers to any mental or behavioral problems.
"The scientific data aren't ready to be used by the judicial system," she remarks. "The hardest thing [for neuroscientists to do] is to bring brain research into real-life contexts."
"The brain data don't show that adolescents typically have reduced legal culpability for crimes." Harvard University psychologist Jerome Kagan.
"Something about cultural context must be critical here," Kagan says. "Under the right conditions, 15-year-olds can control their impulses without having fully developed frontal lobes."
The ambiguities of science don't mix with social and political causes, contends neuroscientist Bradley S. Peterson of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. For instance, it's impossible to say at what age teenagers become biologically mature because the brain continues to develop in crucial ways well into adulthood, he argues.
Such findings underscore the lack of any sharp transition in brain development that signals maturity, according to neuroscientist William T. Greenough of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Definitions of adulthood change depending on social circumstances, Greenough points out. Only 200 years ago, Western societies regarded 16-year-olds as adults.
"Brain science offers no simple take-home message about adolescents," says B.J. Casey of Cornell University's Weill Medical College in New York City. "It's amazing how little we know about the developing brain."
Brain-scanning techniques, including the popular MRI, remain a "crude level of analysis," Casey notes. What's more, many critical brain-cell responses are too fast for MRI to track.
Science News summarizes these positions: " . . .brain science doesn't belong in court because there's no evidence linking specific characteristics of teens' brains to any legally relevant condition, such as impaired moral judgment or an inability to control murderous impulses. "
No one, including psychiatrists, psychologists and brain specialists, disputes that some 16-17 year olds are as mature, or more mature, than some of those 18 and older. US Supreme Court Justices, Nobel Peace Prize winners, the American Medical Association and the European Union agree.
Therefore, the argument against executing some 16-17 year old murderers is without merit, when it is based upon age, alone.
Is a murderer less culpable solely because they murdered someone one-second, one minute, one week, one month or one year before their 18th birthday? Of course not.
US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor writes:
"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." (2)
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. If society so wished it could individually evaluate 16-17 years olds (just as we do within the criminal justice system) 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.
MacArthur Juvenile Competence Study: "The study did not find differences between juveniles aged 16 and 17 and young adults (18-24) in abilities relevant to their competence to stand trial." (3)
If polls reflected respondents detailed knowledge and review, as found, above, there is little doubt that a majority of the public would support the death penalty for some 16-17 year old murderers.
It is presented that some US states are equal with a number of less democratic nations that execute those who were under age 18 when they committed their murder(s). First, the US criminal justice system is quite different from those nations. Second, as no one disputes that many 16-17 year olds are as mature as some 18-21 year olds, this argument means nothing.
If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Dudley Sharp
(1) excerpts from "Teen Brains on Trial", Bruce Bower, Science News, 5/8/04, vol. 165, No. 19, p.299
www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040508/bob9.asp
(2) Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988) (USSC+) at
www2.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/foliocgi.exe/historic/query=[group+487+u!2Es!2E+815!3A]!28[group+edited!3A]!7C[level++case+citation!3A]!29/doc/{@1}/hit_headings/words=4/hits_only?
(3) from Study Summary, " MacArthur Juvenile Competence Study", www.mac-adoldev-juvjustice.org/competence%20study%20summary.pdf
Full Study, Results, www.mac-adoldev-juvjustice.org/page23.html
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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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