U.S. court to rule on juvenile death penalty

Press, 28 February 1987, Page 40

U.S. court to rule on juvenile death penalty

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The, United States Supreme Court has said it will decide whether to uphold the death penalty for killers under the age Of 18.

The nation’s nine-mem-ber High Court agreed to decide, for the first time, whether executing juveniles violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, there have been three executions of teen-age killers.

The court’s decision to consider the age question, in a case from Oklahoma involving a 15-year old convicted killer, will af-

fect 36 people now on death row in prisons across the country for murders they committed as juveniles.

The Oklahoma case involves William Wayne Thompson, who was 15 when he participated in 1983 with three adults in the shooting and stabbing death of his former brother-in-law, whose body was found floating in the Washita River in Oklahoma.

Thompson was sentenced to death more than two years ago. “Killing minors for crimes committed while still children offends fundamental standards of decency and humanity,” said his lawyer, Harry Tepker, in appealing to the Supreme Court. Amnesty International, the London-based human rights organisation, has issued a report charging that the United States is one of only five countries that executes juvenile

killers. It says Pakistan, Bangladesh, Barbados and Rwanda are the other nations that have executed juveniles since 1980.

“The imposition of death sentences on people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crime is a clear violation of international treaties and guidelines,” Amnesty said.

Thirty-six of the 50 United States states have capital punishment laws. Three have no age limit, six require judges and juried to consider age as a mitigating sentencing factor, 10 forbid the execution of minors entirely, and 17 set minimum age limits, ranging from 17 to 10.

The Supreme Court will will issue a decision in the case during its term that starts in October.