Psychiatrists across the country, having argued for years that adolescents' brains function differently from those of adults, applauded last month's Supreme Court ruling that abolished juvenile executions.
In a 5-4 vote, the court concluded that the death penalty for minors—those under 18 at the time they committed the crime—was unconstitutional and represented cruel and unusual punishment.
“I am pleased and quite happy with the court's decision,” said David Fassler, M.D., a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Burlington, Vt. “The decision is a reinforcement of what we all know in the psychiatric community—that the brains of adolescents function differently [from those of] adults.”
Cynthia Pfeffer, M.D., a child psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, agreed.
“I think the court took a developmental view, which was very appropriate. From the perspective of development, children and adolescents are not the same as adults regarding neurobiological development,” she said.
Brain-development differences between adolescents and adults, say many child and adolescent psychiatrists, affect judgment, behavior, impulse control, and decision-making ability. Teens, with their still-maturing brains, rely more on impulsivity than rational and goal-oriented thought.
“Adolescents are still capable of change; their future behaviors are not yet fixed,” Dr. Fassler said. “It's important to remember that adolescents know the difference between right and wrong. But when it comes to capital punishment, it should be reserved for fully functioning and developed adults with a greater capacity to control and modify their behavior.”
Dr. Fassler, also of the University of Vermont, said he was pleased the medical community spoke with a unified voice on the issue.
Last October, Dr. Fassler was one of many attending the oral arguments on this case in front of the Supreme Court.
Several organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Society of Adolescent Psychiatry, and the National Mental Health Association, have long opposed the death penalty for juvenile offenders.
The United States had been one of only three countries to maintain the practice of executing juvenile offenders; Iran and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the others.
Last month's decision means 72 juvenile offenders on death rows in 12 states will be resentenced. Prior to last month, 20 states allowed executions of juvenile offenders. Since 1973, 22 juvenile offenders have been executed.
The ruling will also prohibit execution of defendants in pending cases, including then-17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, who, along with John Allen Muhammad, is responsible for killing 10 people in the Washington, D.C., area in October 2002. He will spend the remainder of his life in prison.
The high court decision overturned a 1989 ruling upholding the death penalty for 16- and 17-year-old offenders.
The impetus for the Supreme Court's new ruling was the case of Roper v. Simmons. In 1993, Christopher Simmons, then 17, and two younger accomplices broke into a neighbor's home, intending to burglarize it. When the neighbor, Shirley Crook, awoke and recognized him, Mr. Simmons tied her up, put duct tape over her eyes and mouth, put her in a minivan and threw her off a railroad bridge south of St. Louis. Crook drowned in the waters below.
Prosecutors described the crime as “wantonly vile, horrible, and inhuman,” and the jury sentenced Mr. Simmons to die. Two years ago, Missouri's highest court overturned that sentence because of Mr. Simmons' age at the time of the crime, forcing the Supreme Court to revisit the issue.
“From a moral standpoint, it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed,” wrote Justice Anthony A. Kennedy.
Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer joined Justice Anthony A. Kennedy's opinion setting 18 years as the minimum age for capital punishment. In addition to their arguments about brain development, they noted that in nearly every state, 18 is the minimum age for voting, serving on juries, and obtaining marriage licenses without parental permission.
Texas' juvenile offenders may be the biggest beneficiary of the court's ruling. Of the 72 juvenile defenders on death row, by far the largest number (29) is in Texas, a fact not lost on Christopher R. Thomas, M.D., professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Texas, Galveston. He said a lot of people think the ruling will spark an increase in juvenile violence. But states that have decided to abolish juvenile executions have not seen an increase in violent crimes among juveniles, said Dr. Thomas, who is also the chair of the rights and legal matters committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists.