February 12, 2004

Newsfeed: Lauren Girard Adams

Lauren Girard Adams discusses juvenile executions

The Supreme Court recently decided to review the use of execution in juvenile cases. Lauren Girard Adams, clinical fellow and staff attorney of the Children and Family Justice Center, says the court could be deciding on two separate issues.

One is whether or not the Missouri Supreme Court overstepped its bounds in declaring the juvenile death penalty unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The other issue that, hopefully, they will be looking at is whether or not the juvenile death penalty is in fact unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Adams says the decision will not necessarily reflect the court’s opinion regarding the death penalty for adults.

Evaluating whether or not it’s unconstitutional to execute juvenile offenders can be quite different from the factors they would be looking at to make that decision with respect to the general population. The analysis under the Eighth Amendment is whether there is an evolving consensus that the practice is cruel and unusual.

According to Adams, the issue of juvenile executions has been under examination for years.

This issue has been percolating for some time. There have been significant actions by states to introduce and pass legislation to eliminate the juvenile death penalty where it currently exists. But a majority of states do not allow juvenile offenders to be executed.

Adams says a decision against juvenile executions will impact Texas the most.

Texas obviously will be impacted most significantly by such a decision. It has executed 13 juvenile offenders and currently 28 juvenile offenders are on death row. Texas is, by far, the leader in this practice.

Adams hopes the Court will rule against juvenile executions.

The law prohibits persons under the age of 18 from voting, serving in the military, entering into contracts and doing a whole host of things. So we hope that the Supreme Court will recognize this in their decision. We hope that the Supreme Court will recognize that there is a national consensus on banning the execution of juvenile offenders. The United States is virtually alone in the world in openly and legally continuing it.

— Samira Puskar