3/1/2005: Today the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Roper v. Simmons, a case from Missouri, that people who committed capital crimes when they were under the age of 18 may not be sentenced to death. By vote of 5-to-4, the court said that there is now a "consensus" in American society that juveniles, along with the mentally retarded, are "less culpable" for their crimes because they lack sound judgment. The justices said that the "Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed." There are over 70 people on death row in the United States who were sentenced based on crimes they committed when they were under 18 years old.

The Juvenile Law Center said in a statement, "Children are distinctly different from adults in culpability, judgment and blame-worthiness, facts that make them ineligible for the death penalty. Christopher Simmons was 17 when he committed murder, an age at which adolescents' brains are not fully developed and teens may not understand the full consequences of their actions." American Bar Association's history of Christopher Simmons

More info about the Simmons case | 2003 Missouri Supreme Court decision commuting Simmons's sentence to life | Roper v. Simmons Decision | Past Docket from the Case | AI USA's Juvenile Death Penalty Page | NCADP's Campaign to End Juvenile Executions