The Supreme Court today ruled 5 to 4 that a 16 or17 year old cannot be executed no matter what crime he committed at that age…If he is 18 years old or older he may be executed.
How do you feel about its decision. I personally believe they exceeded their capacity in this regard and are legislating which is not up to the Supreme Court.
Maturity often does not correlate with chronological age. Your thoughts?
Well, my first thought is that I probably agree. My second is that I’m still wading though the opinions, though, and I’m open to the “developing national consensus” argument. My third thought is that someone beat you to the punch. 
It’s not “17 live…18 die,” it’s “15 and younger cannot be executed.” I think it’s the right call, but that’s to be expected since I feel the death penalty is unjust anyway.
Mistyped, never mind. I was trying to correlate two rulings. I don’t think executing a minor is much crueler than executing an adult, but that’s not to say I think the Court is wrong.
I feel that capital punishment, as administered in the United States and quite possibly under any possible form of administration, is unfair and unjust and should be banished. As such, I welcome any ruling which curtails the ability of the state to execute its citizens.
Seems the entire decision rests upon the determination that state-sponsored killing of a minor is “cruel and unusual”. I suppose this judgement is based on the assumption that a minor lacks the status of full cognizance, while adulthood confers such a status.
Big assumption, if you ask me.
But it’s not just an assumption, it’s precedent, as Kennedy recognized. “The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest.”
That doesn’t make me feel better when the metally ill or retarded get executed.
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Locking this since we already have an earlier juvenile death penalty supremes thread here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304868. Please move the discussion there.
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