Clear Lake Topics: Death Penalty for

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	Name:	copperline -
	Subject:	Death Penalty for
	Date:	3/3/2005 9:45:41 PM

I'm a bit surprised that you would point out the emotions I feel about this issue and not make the same observations about all the posts I've seen in this debate. Isn't a stingent demand for retribution and revenge a purely emotional position to take?

My logic is that I really don't think the founding fathers could have ever imagined a time when we would be actually have to consider the state's right to execute children. I don' t think the state was convicting children of murder & hanging them back then, probably because it was so rare as to be unworthy of specific consideration during the 1700's. The Constitution did establish a Supreme Court to expound on their principles of law and make them apply in the 21st Century. In this case, there is an absence of specific language to address this modern-day phenomena, except as refers to our protection against cruel and unusual punishment. This ruling is not a revision of the Constitution, it's about crafting a legal strategy to deal with a modern problem using the guiding principles of the Constitution.

As the Justices pointed out in their opinion, there is a generally accepted notion that age and maturity does impact on culpability in all criminal cases. They also cited that the majority of States have laws that prohibit execution of juveniles under the age of 18. Their decision was to set an age at which this principle would be codified as federal law. Since age 18 is most commonly accepted as the boundary between childhood and adulthood AND the majority of state legislatures had already established their support for such a distinction by prohibiting these executions, this was the logical place to establish a boundary when a person will be treated as an adult in all respects, or as as child with all due protections and considerations.