Coalition urges end to juvenile death penalty

According to the American Bar Association, Simmons was convicted of murdering Shirley Crook, whose body was found in the Meramec River in 1993. He received a May 1, 2002, execution date, but his death sentence was later set aside and he received a new sentence of life in prison without the possibility of probation or parole.

The BYE Coalition, formed in the fall of 2002, includes medical and health associations and educational, religious and child-advocate groups. Many member groups of the coalition have no particular opinion on the death penalty, according to a news release, but some oppose it in all circumstances. The groups, however, have aligned collectively to decry the juvenile death penalty as unacceptable in light of evolving standards of decency and emerging science that demonstrates that the brain structure of adolescents is incomplete.

The brief stated, “Science has shown that the ability to soundly judge and plan for the future are among the last characteristics to mature among young people. The current research on adolescence indicates that during this transitional stage, a young person’s cognitive abilities, emotions, judgment, impulse control, identity and their brain are still developing.” The brief concludes, “It is past time for the juvenile death penalty to take its rightful place as a lamentable fact of history.”

In recent years, the BYE Coalition has primarily worked in the legislative arena to help pass a bill raising the minimum age at which state courts may consider individuals for the death penalty to 18. The coalition applauded the August 2003 decision by the Missouri Supreme Court to overturn Simmons’ sentence, but member groups were disappointed when the Missouri Attorney General’s Office opted to challenge that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The BYE Coalition joins the national effort to banish the practice of executing juvenile offenders in the United States, which is one of the few nations in the world to do so. Only two countries, the United States and Somalia, have not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states “international law clearly prohibits the juvenile death penalty.”

The amicus brief cites a growing statewide and national consensus to end the juvenile death penalty as reflected in legislative action, jury decisions, current positions by professional associations and public opinion. One appendix of the brief focuses on the results of a June survey of 500 Missouri respondents.

Of the respondents, 59 percent expressed opposition to the juvenile death penalty, while less than one-fourth said they supported the practice. Although most respondents opposed the death penalty for juvenile offenders, about two-thirds of those questioned were somewhat or strongly in favor of the death penalty in general.

The poll was conducted by the Center for Social Sciences and Public Policy Research at Southwest Missouri State University.