Supreme Court asked to halt executions of teen killers

WASHINGTON - Canada, Mexico and other U.S. allies, along with Nobel Peace Prize winners, former American diplomats and the nation's largest doctors' group, on Monday asked the Supreme Court to end the execution of killers who committed their crimes as young teenagers.

The Supreme Court will reconsider this fall whether the punishment is unconstitutionally cruel, continuing a recent pattern of placing itself at the center of international debates over American laws and practices.

The United States is among only a few countries that allow execution for crimes committed before age 18, and friend-of-the-court filings Monday said the practice leaves America diplomatically isolated and vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy on human rights issues.

"Countries whose human rights records are criticized by the United States have no incentive to improve their records when the United States fails to meet the most fundamental, baseline standards," said a filing on behalf of Nobel laureates including former President Jimmy Carter and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

The 25-nation European Union and 23 other countries argued that executing juvenile killers "violates widely accepted human rights norms and the minimum standards of human rights set forth by the United Nations."

Mexico noted separately that three of the 73 death row inmates condemned for killings that occurred before they were 18 are Mexican nationals.

Diplomats including former undersecretary of state Thomas Pickering and former ambassador to France Felix Rohatyn argued there is a growing international consensus against such executions.

Between 1990 and 2003, the United States executed more juvenile offenders than the rest of the world combined, the diplomats' filing said.

In the past four years, only five nations have executed juveniles, the diplomats said: Congo, China, Iran, Pakistan and the United States.

The death penalty in general is a sticking point between the United States and many of its allies, some of which will not extradite wanted killers who might face execution in the United States.

International views and the experience of other nations are increasingly important in Supreme Court cases, and friend-of-the-court filings citing international law earned mention in some of the court's most prominent rulings over the past three terms.

The American Medical Association, the nation's largest organization of doctors, as well as other medical and mental health groups also told the court they oppose execution of teen killers.

But two friend-of-the-court briefs support continuation of such executions.

"Juveniles are capable of understanding right from wrong and the consequences of their actions," a filing from the pro-death penalty Justice for All Alliance said.

Lawyers for Alabama, Delaware, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Virginia told the court states should decide which convicted killers merit a death sentence. Those states are among 19 that allow execution of killers who were 16 or 17 at the time of the crime.

Some major Supreme Court cases on capital punishment:

In 1972, in Furman vs. Georgia, the Supreme Court suspended executions, ruling that as then applied, capital punishment had become unconstitutionally "capricious and arbitrary."

In 1976, in Gregg vs. Georgia, the court allowed states to reinstate the death penalty using revised sentencing laws.

In 1986, in Ford vs. Wainwright, the court held it unconstitutional to execute the insane.

In 1988, in Thompson vs. Oklahoma, the court outlawed execution for those younger than 16.

In 1989, in Sanford vs. Kentucky, the court specifically allowed execution for 16- and 17-year-olds convicted of murder.

Also in 1989, in Penry vs. Lynaugh, the court allowed execution of mentally retarded defendants in some cases.

In 2002, the court reversed itself and outlawed execution of the mentally retarded.

Also in 2002, the court said only juries, not judges alone, may make crucial determinations about which cases qualify for a death sentence.

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