Church groups hail ruling ending death penalty for juvenile offenders

Published: 2005-03-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Supreme Court's March 1 ruling overturning the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles was hailed as validating the position of religious, child advocacy, legal and medical groups that had urged the court to find such executions unconstitutional. In a statement issued the same day the court's 5-4 decision was announced, Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee, said the bishops' conference "is very encouraged that the Supreme Court has recognized that executing juvenile offenders is indeed cruel and unusual." The court's majority opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, will remove about 72 people nationwide from death row. More than half are from just two states: Texas, which has 29, and Alabama, which has 14. It was not immediately clear what would happen to those people. After a recent decision overturning death sentences imposed by judges instead of juries, the states affected by the ruling took different approaches to resentencing. The latest decision came in Roper vs. Simmons.

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