Children in the United States:

[softheart]

Death Penalty and Execution News


APRIL 30, 2003:



USA:

Press Release


Children in the United States: Continuing execution and imprisonment of juvenile offenders shatters hopes of justice


The International Secretariat of OMCT is greatly concerned by the deplorable state of the juvenile justice system in the United States of America, especially in relation to the imposition of the death penalty as well as life imprisonment without parole and adult proceedings applied to offenders who committed crimes when they were under 18. As the UN Commission on Human Rights drew to an end last Friday, the United States attempted once again to omit any reference to death penalty in the resolution on children's rights, which met the opposition of the entire international community.

Execution of juvenile offenders continues

Scott Hain was executed on April 3rd 2003 by lethal injection and was declared dead at 8:39 p.m., after the US Supreme Court overturned a stay of the execution that had been granted by the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in the previous day. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board also denied Scott's request for clemency. His lawyer, Steven Presson, appeared at the hearing with Scott, but Presson said he could not present a credible case for clemency because of a lack of funds. In May 1988, Scott (at the age of 17) was sentenced by a Tulsa court for the 1987 murders of Michael William Houghton and Laura Lee Saunders in Tulsa, but in 1993, he successfully appealed based on an error in jury instructions. Yet, 1 year later, the state sentenced him to death again.

The International Secretariat of OMCT condemns this execution and considers that it is incompatible with international children's rights law. The Secretariat is also greatly concerned for the 79 other juvenile offenders that await execution in the United States.

OMCT strongly supports the principles enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and in particular article 37 (a) which forbids the imposition of "capital punishment for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age". While the United States are not party to the CRC, OMCT considers that they are nonetheless bound by this prohibition. As stated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, "a norm of international customary law has emerged prohibiting the execution of offenders under the age of 18 years at the time of their crime." and "this rule has been recognized as being of sufficiently indelible nature to now constitute a norm of jus cogens."

Life imprisonment applied without pity

Lionel Tate, a 14 year old boy, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on March 9th 2001. He was found guilty of the murder of Tiffany Eunick, a 6-year-old girl. Tiffany died on July 28th 1999 at Lionel's home, after he had beaten her, when he was 12 years old. On August 11th 1999, the Grand jury indicted Lionel and charged him as an adult, with 1st-degree murder. On January 16th 2001, the trial began and on March 9th 2001 the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole. He is currently in the Okeechobee Juvenile Offender Correction Centre, where he will remain until he is 16, after which he will finish his sentence in an as yet unknown adult penitentiary. It should also be noted that the State Governor is empowered to commute his sentence.

In April 1999, Rebecca Falcon was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole at the age of 15. She was indicted as an adult and convicted under Florida law for the felony murder of Richard Phillips, a cab driver. On November 19th 1997, Rebecca had gone out in the evening with a 14-year-old friend from school and his 18-year-old cousin, Clifton Gilchrist. The 3 of them took a taxi cab.

Clifton, who is known to be usually armed, had a gun with him. That night, the cab driver was shot that evening and he died 6 days later. Before being indicted, Rebecca was sent to a juvenile detention facility and she was then transferred to an isolation cell at the Bay County Jail. She currently resides at the Lowell Women's Prison.

OMCT considers that these 2 cases of imprisonment of juvenile offenders (as well as other similar cases) are an infringement of international children's rights law, and in particular of article 37(a) of the CRC which forbids the imposition of "life imprisonment without possibility of release for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age". In addition, article 37(b) of the CRC calls upon states to use imprisonment against a child, that is a person under 18 years of age (art.1 CRC), "only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time."

OMCT deems that detention on death row, as well as life imprisonment without possibility of release, amount to torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, which is prohibited by the international instruments ratified by the United States, when applied to particularly vulnerable persons such as children (who are in the critical stages of their development). Children sentenced to death or to life imprisonment are subjected to severe psychological suffering and their long term social and emotional development is deeply affected.

Adult proceedings imposed on juvenile offenders

Lee Boyd Malvo was arrested on October 24th, 2002 with John Allen Muhammad at a highway rest facility. They are suspected in the series of Washington area shootings that killed 10 people and wounded 3 others last October. Malvo was transferred to an ordinary court and on January 22nd 2003 he was indicted as an adult with 3 charges under Virginia law, namely for murder of more than 1 person in 3 years, murder as an act of terrorism, and using a firearm during a felony. This indictment makes him eligible to the death penalty, as Virginia has no minimum age at which juveniles can be subjected to such sentences.

Increasingly, across the United States children are being tried as adults when they commit serious crimes. In fact, it is considered that some types of crimes are so serious that they do not belong in a juvenile justice system that is designed to promote the child's reintegration and holding of a constructive role in society. For this reason, many states have recently resorted to adult courts instead of juvenile courts when such crimes were being considered.

OMCT is greatly concerned about this recent trend and is also deeply preoccupied by the fact that trying juveniles as adults can make them eligible for severe punishments which have no rehabilitative purpose, such as the death penalty or life imprisonment.

According to article 40(3) of the CRC, "States Parties shall seek to promote the establishment of laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically applicable to children alleged as, accused of, or recognised as having infringed the penal law."

As a consequence, OMCT urges the United States authorities to abolish the death penalty and life imprisonment without parole that is imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age and to abolish laws which allow children to be tried as adult.

More specifically, OMCT calls on the United States authorities to commute the sentences handed down to Lionel Tate, Rebecca Falcon and other juveniles that have been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, to commute the sentence of the 79 juvenile offenders on death row, and to guarantee that Lee Boyd Malvo (and all minors having committed serious crimes) will not be tried as an adult.

[deb]

Inhumane and barbaric.

Deb

[softheart]

Yes it is Deb and to me it is hard to believe that we are suppose to be such a great country. But like animals we kill our young. We need to think about what is wrong with our society that our young are committing these crimes.


softie

[Valerie]

Yes, why are are young committing these crimes ! How very sad for all of us.