Senator Edward M. Kennedy Praises End of Death Penalty for Juveniles

SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY PRAISES END OF DEATH PENALTY FOR JUVENILES

SENATOR KENNEDY STATEMENT ON ROPER V. SIMMONS

Today, the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty for juvenile persons -- 17 years old or younger. I commend the Court for its wise and courageous decision.

Three years ago, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the execution of the mentally retarded. In reaching that decision, the Court emphasized the large number of states that had enacted laws prohibiting executions of the retarded after 1989, when the Court had earlier declined to hold them unconstitutional. As the Court observed in reaching its decision three years ago to ban them, "It is fair to say that a national consensus has developed against such executions."

The Court cited several factors showing why executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional:

-- Mentally retarded persons lack the capacity to fully appreciate the consequences of their actions.

-- They are less able to control their impulses and learn from experience, and are therefore less likely to be deterred by the death penalty.

-- They are more likely to give false confessions, and less able to give meaningful assistance to their lawyers.

Today, the Supreme Court recognized that this logic also applies to the execution of juveniles. The Court cited a number of factors -- including the rejection of the juvenile death penalty in the majority of States, the infrequency of its use even where it remains legal, and the consistency of the trend toward abolition of the practice. It concluded that these factors provide "sufficient evidence that today our society views juveniles, in the words used respecting the mentally retarded, as 'categorically less culpable than the average criminal.'"

Today's ruling is a welcome victory for justice and human rights. Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, there have been 21 executions of juvenile offenders. In the last five years, only the United States, Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and China have executed a juvenile offender. It is long past time that we wipe this stain from our nation's human rights record.

Other steps need to be taken as well to reform our system of capital punishment.

For too long, our courts have tolerated a shamefully low standard for legal representation in death penalty cases. Some judges have even refused to order relief in cases where the defense lawyer slept through substantial portions of the trial.

I'm hopeful that the legislation proposed by our colleagues Patrick Leahy and Gordon Smith in the Senate, and Bill Delahunt and Ray LaHood in the House, and signed into law by the President last year, will serve to improve the quality of counsel in capital cases.

I'm heartened by the strong statement in President Bush's State of the Union Address last month in support of that program. I'm also encouraged by the President's pledge to dramatically expand the use of DNA evidence to prevent wrongful convictions.

As we work together to remedy the most flagrant defects in the application of the death penalty, however, we must never lose sight of its basic injustice. Experience shows that continued imposition of the death penalty will inevitably lead to wrongful executions. Many of us are concerned about the racial disparities in the imposition of capital punishment and the wide disparities in the states in its application. The unequal, unfair, arbitrary and discriminatory use of the death penalty is completely contrary to our nation=s commitment to fairness and equal justice for all, and we need to do all we can to correct these fundamental flaws.

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