CNN: US SUPREME COURT: ALL DEATH PENALTY CASES WITH JUVENILE KILLERS THROWN OUT!

CNN on TV

[Next_Time_NJ]

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, were unconstitutionally cruel.

This report will be updated as details become available.

[Next_Time_NJ]

I disagree with what they are doing to her. I think she should live... I just think the court system works too low.

[HostileTerritory]

If you think 11 year olds who commit murder should get the death penalty, I'm not sure there's any point in explaining my morality and how it distinguishes between adults and kids. We obviously come from two very different places on that one.

[PISANO]

Just where in the constitution does it say this?? Oh...it must be European Law, Custom and Practices that was USED by the FIVE!

Thank goodness for our ENLIGHTENED British and French friends.

[Publius Valerius]

There's no difference. It's foreign law. We threw off the yoke of British "oppression." We have a written constitution; Britain doesn't. That is difference enough alone to not cite to British law.

[msp2004]

I understood that, but thanks.
I'll rephrase my question to " how many individuals are on death row who committed their acts while under the age of 18".
What I am saying is I wonder how many are affected by this incomparison to the 4,000 babies who die each day.

[docbnj]

You ask if the death penalty is a deterrent. Stupid question!

Of course it's a deterrent. Here's how I know: It deters me.

Any more dumb questions?

[Diddle E. Squat]

You can hide behind your technical beauracratic definitions, but common sense says that those are 2 different issues. All that matters is

1) Did the murderer know and understood that murder is wrong, and understand the basic differences between right or wrong. If they aren't severely mentally ill, they know that at an early age.

2) Was it a crime of passion, or premeditated cold-blooded murder.



All your other cute legalistic defense lawyer bullshit is just pathetic excuse-making.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

You're either pro-life, or you're not.

Bull. I am pro-life. But when you murder someone else you lose your right to live.

[jwalsh07]

There's no need to invoke foreign law. There's plenty of precedent in the US Supreme Court history for setting the bar of "cruel and unusual".

Perhaps so, perhaps not but it is irrelevant. Breyer stated "I will continue to read and cite foreign law..."

Not my words, his.

[cynicom]

My Uncle Ben (far removed) Franklin had a bit to do with the original but nowhere do I find all of these astounding Revelations found by these modern day clairvoyants.

[deport]

How long before some judge figures that life in prison is also "unconstitutionally cruel".

---

This maybe a step down the road of setting national standards for punishment in the various states..... Death in one state, life in another without parole, life with parole in another..... They may decide at some point that that is cruel and unusual punishment to the various offenders.....

sheesh.

[Petronski]

Har!

[Protagoras]

This is not about whether it is unusual punishement to execute minors of a certain age, it is about SCOTUS usurping powers that rightfully belong to the states.

Executing a 5 yr old would be cruel and unusual in my opinion.

It is the people in those states who have the right, throught their elected officials, to decided what is moral and what isn't.

Sorry, incorrect. Elected officials don't decide what is moral. That is reserved for God.

[Ready4Freddy]

As the others pointed out, gop, the Carrs were >18 when their crimes were committed. That's the good news.

The bad news is.... that in Dec(?), 2004, the KS SC threw out the KS death penalty law that they were convicted under. All 5-6 folks on KS death row will get life sentences, not the needle.

[highlandbreeze]

I went to school with two boys, one 18 and the other 17. I had a friend whose grandfather was beaten to death in his own home. The two boys did it. The 18 yo gave up the 17yo, the 17yo was sentenced to die. When he turned 18, they decided he was just a kid and flipped his sentence to life without parole.

I suppose my friend's family feel much better now.
FYI: the 18yo, got life.

[RobFromGa]

I still think 23 hours a day in lockdown while being being "Bubba's new girlfriend"

I think it is reprehensible that this occurs, and not only to murderers, but to non-violent criminals in some cases.

For a culture that gets all bent out of shape over Abu Graib "torture" of enemies planning to kill our soldiers to make wisecracks about prison rape as an accepted occurence makes me sick.

[Quick1]

There is no actual evidence of the death penalty being a deterrent.

[Modernman]

Some states had the death penalty for 16 years olds and rightly so.

Like I said, it is unjust to treat a 16 year-old as an adult in such a circumstance while not treating him as an adult in others.

If a 16 year-old is mature enough to be executed for his crimes, then he is mature enough to vote or enter into legally-binding contracts.

[docbnj]

Whether you like the death penalty is not the point. The point here is that the Court just made up the law for you, in a completely illegitimate decision.

We cant even argue about these things anymore, at least not to any purpose, because we must do whatever five idiots tell us.

[Netizen]

You ask if the death penalty is a deterrent.

Not only can it be a deterrent, even should it fail it still works by preventing a repeat offense.