Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it's unconstitutional for states to execute criminals who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes. (Prior to this ruling, the Court had already made it illegal for juveniles who have committed federal capital crimes to be sentenced to death.) In this installment of "By the Numbers," the Daily explores the history of juvenile capital punishment.
- 1976 Year in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could levy the death penalty
- 1 Americans "executed for a crime committed as a 16-year-old" since then (Sean Sellers)
- 3People Sellers murdered (his mother, his stepfather, and a store worker)
- 7 Countries other than the U.S. that executed juveniles during the 1990s (Iran, China, Congo, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia)
- 7 Countries that have since halted the execution of juveniles
- 8th The Constitutional Amendment that forbids "cruel and unusual punishments"
- 5-to-4 Proportion by which the Supreme Court Justices ruled last week that executing people for crimes committed before they turned 18 was "cruel and unusual"
- 5-to-4 Proportion by which the Supreme Court Justices ruled the opposite way in 1989 (Justice Anthony Kennedy changed his mind this time around)
- 5 States that have banned sentencing juveniles to death since then
- 30 Total number of states that have banned sentencing juveniles to death
- 12States that have banned capital punishment entirely
- 13 Juveniles executed since 1998 in the U.S.
- 8 How many of those executions occurred in Texas
- 72 Juveniles in the penal system across the U.S. whose death sentences will lifted as a result of the court's ruling
- 28 Number of those juveniles who are in Texas's penal system
- 1988 Year in which the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of those who were younger than 15 at the time of their crime
- 2002 Year in which the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of the mentally retarded
The statistics cited above come from TIME Magazine, the Associated Press, DissidentVoice.org, the Michigan Daily, and the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger .
