Moving juveniles off death row

The U. S. Supreme Court's reasoning in banning the death penalty for people who commit their crimes before they turn 18 was that much more compelling because of who wrote the majority opinion.

Sixteen years ago, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy voted the other way to uphold the constitutionality of states executing 16- and 17-year-olds. But his opinion Tuesday in the Missouri case, Roper v. Simmons, cited "evolving standards of decency" for the court's ruling that the increasingly rare practice was cruel and unusual, violating the Eighth Amendment.

Five of the court's justices were persuaded by medical and psychological evidence that children under the age of 18 are still developing their character and, in the instance of the irreversible penalty, should not be held as culpable as adults. It makes sense, considering our nation reserves certain rights and privileges, such as voting, until the age of 18 because anyone younger is not considered mature enough to make such decisions.

Also significant is that fewer and fewer people sentenced to death for crimes committed as juveniles are being put to death.

The decision moves 72 people off death row in 12 states, but only three states have executed juvenile offenders in the past 10 years: Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia. Since the high court's 1989 decision upholding the death penalty for juvenile offenders, five more states have prohibited executing juveniles, leaving only 20 that permitted it.

The ruling also erases the United States' dreadful distinction of being the only nation in the world still to condone execution of juvenile offenders.

This decision applied similar logic as the court's ruling three years ago to ban the execution of the mildly mentally retarded.

Considering these two most recent death-penalty rulings and the increasing number of death-row inmates who have been exonerated through DNA evidence, it's clear the death penalty should be used only in the most egregious circumstances where there is no doubt about the criminal's culpability.

That includes their mental maturity.

Kennedy's change of heart got this one right.