Texas should halt the executions of two juvenile offenders scheduled for this month, Human Rights Watch urged today.
The first of the two executions, that of T.J. Jones, is scheduled for August 8. Jones was convicted in 1994 of a murder committed in the course of a carjacking when he was 17. Because he has asked his attorney not to pursue further appeals or seek clemency, his execution next week is all but certain.
Toronto Patterson, the second juvenile offender scheduled for execution this month, was also convicted of murder at the age of 17. His death sentence will be carried out on August 28 unless he is granted a reprieve.
Texas executes far more juvenile offenders than any other state. Of the 19 juvenile offenders put to death nationwide since 1976, when executions resumed after a three-year moratorium, 11 were from Texas. The most recent execution was that of Napoleon Beazley, who was put to death in May despite pleas for clemency by the judge who presided over his trial and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others.
Just six other states have carried out such executions in the past 26 years. Of those states, only Virginia has executed more than one juvenile offender. Virginia has put three juvenile offenders to death, two in 2000 and one in 1998.
Even in Texas, lawmakers are having second thoughts about allowing juvenile offenders to be put to death. In the last legislative session, a measure that would have risen the minimum age for capital punishment to 18 passed in the Texas House of Representatives and would have been approved by the state Senate if Gov. Perry had not threatened to veto it.
Indiana abolished the death penalty for juvenile offenders this year, and Montana did the same in 1999. Similar measures are being considered in at least nine other states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
"Texas is out of step with the rest of the country," said Michael Bochenek, counsel to the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. "Instead of going forward with these executions, it's time for the state to rethink this barbaric practice."
In a related case in June, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the execution of offenders with mental retardation was unconstitutional, reasoning that a national consensus had developed against it. The Court noted that 18 states and the federal government prohibited such executions.
Sixteen states and the federal government set 18 as the minimum age for the death penalty. Another 12 states do not permit capital punishment under any circumstances.
The rising number of states that bar the execution of juvenile offenders and the rarity of such executions in states that do permit them makes it likely that the court will address the issue in the near future.
In fact, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told a gathering of federal judges in July that the execution of juvenile offenders could be the next major capital punishment issue decided by the Supreme Court. Stevens was the author of the court's ruling on the execution of persons with mental retardation.
Elsewhere in the world, only Congo and Iran are known to have executed juvenile offenders in the last three years. Each now explicitly repudiates the practice, making the United States the only country that continues to claim the legal authority to execute juvenile offenders.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty under all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty.
