Churches call for court to end juvenile executions

Published: 2004-07-15

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Thirty religious organizations as diverse as the Muslim Women Lawyers for Civil Rights and the Alliance of Baptists have joined the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in urging the Supreme Court to end capital punishment for juveniles with its decision in a case on the docket for the fall. "Children are not miniature adults, and no other area of law treats them as such," said an "amicus," or friend-of-the-court, brief written by the USCCB's general counsel's office and filed July 14. The court will hear Roper vs. Simmons in the term that begins Oct. 3. It revolves around the question of whether executing people for crimes committed as juveniles is constitutional. The Supreme Court last reviewed the question of executing juveniles in 1989, finding no constitutional barrier to the death penalty for crimes committed by 16- or 17-year-olds. A year earlier, the court had found that executions of criminals younger than 16 were unconstitutional. Christopher Simmons was convicted of murdering Shirley Crook after robbing her suburban St. Louis home in 1993, when he was 17.

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