Hain was convicted in 1987 for two murders he committed at the age of 17. If executed, he will be the twenty-second juvenile offender put to death since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a three-year moratorium.
“Executing someone who was a child at the time of his crimes isn’t justice,” said Michael Bochenek, counsel to the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. “It’s a medieval practice that should be abandoned.”
Oklahoma has carried out the death sentence of only one juvenile offender in that time, executing Sean Sellers in 1999 for a crime he committed at age 16. Sellers was the first person in forty years to be put to death for a crime committed at that age.
The state is one of 22 in the United States that permit the death penalty for crimes committed by children under the age of eighteen. Only seven states have actually put a juvenile offender to death in the last 26 years.
Executions for juvenile crimes are rare nationwide. Juvenile offenders account for 2.6 percent of all executions since 1976 and 1.8 percent of the approximately 20,000 confirmed executions since 1608.
A May 2002 Gallup poll found that 69 percent of Americans are against the death penalty for juvenile offenders, and state lawmakers appear to be listening to them. Indiana abolished the death penalty for juvenile offenders last year, and Montana did the same in 1999. Similar measures are being considered in at least 10 other states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.
And in October 2002 four U.S. Supreme Court justices called the execution of juvenile offenders a “shameful practice.” Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer wrote, “The practice of executing such offenders is a relic of the past and is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in a civilized society.”
What you can do:
Urge Gov. Brad Henry to commute Scott Hain’s death sentence
Email Oklahoma public officials through the website of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:
http://capwiz.com/ncadp/mail/compose/
Or write or call the governor:
Office of Governor Brad Henry
State Capitol Building
2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., Room 212
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Telephone:Fax: (405) 521-2342(405) 521-3353
Support a moratorium in your state
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/deathpenalty/gov/moratorium.htm
