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One week ago today, however, the Supreme Court took us one step in the right direction, ruling 5-4 that the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles under the age of 18 violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. "It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. Juvenile executions are explicitly banned under Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been signed by every country in the world except the United States and Somalia, which has no recognized government.
Kennedy, generally a conservative, joined the usual liberal bloc consisting of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Steven Breyer. For once, the right wing lynch mob composed of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas was outnumbered and outgunned.
Former President Jimmy Carter hailed the ruling, saying, "This ruling acknowledges the profound inconsistency in prohibiting those under 18 years of age from voting, serving in the military, or buying cigarettes, while allowing them to be sentenced to the ultimate punishment."
As good as the Roper v. Simmons ruling is, we are still in bad shape when it comes to the death penalty. Tuesday's ruling saves the lives of only 72 of the 3,325 people currently on death row in the U.S. A May 2004 Gallup poll showed 71% support for the death penalty is an indication of the public education work the human rights and civil liberties movements still have to do.
It needs to be made known that the death penalty actually costs more than imprisoning a person for life. The average capital case in Florida costs $2.3 million from arrest to execution, more than six times the combined expense of a non-capital murder trial and life in prison.
It needs to be made known that African Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population, but 42% of the death row population, and that black defendants in Philadelphia are 36% more likely to receive the death penalty.
It needs to be made known that there is no evidence to support the claim that the death penalty deters crime. To the contrary, the murder rate in Canada has dropped 40% since the death penalty was abolished there in 1976, and a recent California study found a significant increase in the state's murder rate following reinstatement of the death penalty.
It is ironic that conservatives, who feign a profound distrust of the government and frequently decry its incompetence, are the ones most prepared to entrust the government with the ultimate power. Sadder still, it seems that millions of otherwise sensible and socially progressive Americans are currently unable to resist the bloodthirsty authoritarianism of the death penalty.