For the nearly 70 people living on death row in this country who committed their crimes as juveniles, execution is no longer a certainty.  Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that offenders be at least 18 years of age when they commit crimes in order to be eligible for the death penalty.

The decision comes two years after the nation's highest court made it illegal to execute mentally retarded offenders.  While the legal landscape in the U.S. is clearly changing in regard to execution, juvenile justice experts believe the Supreme Court's latest death penalty decision will have little impact on state corrections systems overall.

According to Judge Betty Adams Green of the Davidson County Juvenile
Court in Tennessee, these offenders who were sentenced to death were all tried in adult court, so the ruling will have little bearing on the juvenile justice system at all.

And even the adult system will not be affected that much, she said.

"I think the only difference that you are going to see immediately is going to be where [the offenders] are held," said Green.

In Florida, where there are three inmates on death row who committed their crimes when they were 17 years old, officials are waiting for official documentation from the courts vacating their sentences before moving them to different units, said Sterling Ivey, Director of the Bureau of Public Affairs for the state Department of Corrections.

"The Supreme Court decision is being reviewed by the Florida Attorney General's Office to determine the exact implications," Ivey said.  "They will advise us on the next step in the process."

It is likely, though, that all three offenders will be re-sentenced to life in prison and it appears that two will have a chance of receiving parole after 25 years, Ivey said.  Although parole was abolished in Florida in 1994, two of the inmates committed their offenses prior to the law being changed, he added.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, too, is waiting for word from the Governor's Office before it removes 28 offenders that this ruling applies to off of death row, TDCJ's Director of Public Information, Mike Viesca, said.

According to a press release from the Governor's Office, the Board of Pardons and Paroles will be reviewing the cases and recommending appropriate action.

Similarly, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is in the process of determining exactly how many of its 222 capital cases the ruling impacts.  According to Press Secretary Susan McNaughton, there are at least two offenders whose death sentences will be commuted.

"The next move is for the inmates' attorneys to work to have them resentenced," McNaughton said.  "Once that takes place, we can move them out of the capital case unit."

According to Green, one advantage to moving these inmates off of death row is the fact that they will be able to participate in programming at the prisons that is offered to the general population.

"I think that there is a recognition by everyone that we do have some young people who, even at the ripe old age of 16 or 17, are not good candidates for rehabilitation," said Green.  "[But] I don't think that excuses us from giving it some effort."

James Alan Fox, The Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, agrees with Green that the corrections system should not just lock these offenders up and throw away the key.

"They may look like, talk like, act like and even shoot like adults, but they think like kids," Fox said.  "Juveniles are not the same as adults even though the crimes might be the same."

According to Fox, most offenders whose death sentences will be tossed out as a result of the Supreme Court ruling will wind up with life sentences, many without parole, Fox said.

Fox, a death penalty opponent, does not support the automatic flip of these sentences to life in prison, either.  But he said that it is not likely that the Supreme Court will go so far as to tackle that issue.

"I think the action now is in the death penalty arena," Fox said. 

Because of research showing that some areas of the brain do not fully develop until the early 20s, he said he would like to see the age for death eligibility be pushed back even further.

"I would like to see it go to 21 instead of 18, but that is just me and if I had it my way, we wouldn't have the death penalty," Fox said.

That is another issue, though, to be decided at a later time.  For now, the Supreme Court has set the bar for execution at 18.