Treatment Of Juvenile Offenders

The death penalty has long been a controversial issue, but never more than when it involves a person who is less than 18 years old. People who are not yet considered to be fully grown (18 is the standard age globally, but it varies in a few countries) are generally treated differently than adults. Even juveniles who commit violent acts such as sexual assault or murder are not looked upon as being mature enough to fully comprehend what they have done. They are also often thought to be young enough to be rehabilitated so that they would never consider committing an aggressive criminal act again.

Amnesty International, a well known humane organization, has studied the number of death sentences that were given to people who committed their crimes before the age of 18, even if the actual execution was not carried out until they were older. They have documented more than 60 cases of juveniles being put to death for their crimes since 1990, all of which occurred within nine separate countries.

In 1989 the United Nations held their Convention on the Rights of the Child to establish protective measures for any person under 18 years of age. A treaty was produced which called for a global ban on child execution along with many other specifics rights for adolescents. Every country except the United States and Somalia signed and adopted the treaty. It may seem odd that the U.S. declined to participate, but since then the U.S. Supreme Court has declared it illegal to put any person to death for crimes they committed prior to reaching adulthood. This landmark decision was reached by a vote of 5 to 4 in 2005 following the hearing of Roper v. Simmons. The ban on juvenile execution was summed up by Justice Kennedy who wrote "When a juvenile offender commits a heinous crime, the State can exact forfeiture of some of the most basic liberties, but the State cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity."

Currently, the only country known to execute minors is Iran. They did agree to the treaty which banned this practice, but have continued to give the death penalty to juveniles anyway. Other countries have protested this, and an organization called "Stop Child Executions" was formed for the express purpose of encouraging Iran to cease this practice. They work to increase public awareness of this situation, suggest other viable methods of punishment and they maintain online petitions that have been signed by people from all over the world.

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