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| Three Supreme Court Justices Say Court Should Consider Ending Teen Executions |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/09/2002 |
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In an unusual public statement about the death penalty, three Supreme Court justices said the time is right to consider abolishing capital punishment for killers who committed their crimes as minors. Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer could not persuade the rest of the court to delay the August 28 execution of a Texas inmate for a killing committed when he was 17. Toronto Patterson had asked the high court to delay his execution and consider whether such executions are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. The three justices, part of the court's liberal wing, said Patterson's execution should be put off at least until the Supreme Court next meets in September to consider cases for the coming term. 'Given the apparent consensus that exists among the states and in the international community against the execution of a capital sentence imposed on a juvenile offender, I think it would be appropriate for the court to revisit the issue at the earliest opportunity,' Stevens wrote in a dissent. All nine justices vote on whether to halt dozens of executions nationally each year. Usually, the vote is kept secret and the court issues only a dry, one- or two-sentence order denying the inmate's request for a delay. In their public dissent, Stevens said he opposed executions of minor killers when the court last considered the question in 1989, and would do so again. Ginsburg and Breyer did not go as far. They said only that the court should revisit the question considering the June decision on retarded killers. The dissents follow the court's landmark ruling this year abolishing executions of the mentally retarded. The court said it is unconstitutionally cruel to execute those who may be mentally incapable of fully understanding their situation or unable to help their lawyers. |
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