• Background: Goals of system and studies
• Debate: Sovereignty v. International norms and inhumane
• Country Comparison: 5 states are known to have executed children offenders since 2000.
• Recent Developments: 2005 Supreme Court ends executions of kids

Background

• 22 child offenders have been executed in seven U.S. states since 1977. More child offenders have been executed in the United States than all other countries combined since 2000, claiming responsibility for 9 of 14 child worldwide.

• All world states except the United States have ratified at least one international treaty that prohibits the use of the death penalty against child offenders. However, the U.S. has not explicitly denied that prohibition. The U.S. is the only state to openly acknowledge executing child offenders and claim its right to do so.

• In the 1989 Supreme Court Decision of Stanford v. Kentucky the use of the death penalty against offenders aged 16 or 17 was determined to not violate the US Constitution. A year earlier, the decision from the Thompson v. Oklahoma case prohibited the use of the death penalty against offenders under 16 years.

• International law prohibits the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18 in three ways : various international treaties, international customary law, and the peremptory norm of international law (jus cogens).
• The international community has adopted four human rights treaties that explicitly exclude child offenders from the death penalty. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child , the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the American (applies to the African states that have ratified this treaty) Convention on Human Rights (applies to the 24 states in the Americas that have ratified this treaty). The Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 (the Fourth Geneva Convention), and two Protocol Additionals to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 prohibit the use of the death penalty for child offenders. In addition, the charters and statements of many intergovernmental bodies, including the United Nations, endorse the prohibition of this practice.

Debate

• The U.S. should maintain its sovereignty and apply punishment according to its own standards.
• The international community disapproves of this practice and the U.S. is the leader among some of the world's most brutal regimes that execute child offenders.

Country Comparison

• China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Pakistan and the USA are all known to have executed child offenders since 2000, although only the U.S. has publicly acknowledged their share of executions. In Sudan and the Philippines, child offenders are currently serving death sentences.

Recent Developments

• In March 2005, the Supreme Court ended child executions. At that time over 70 child offenders were under sentence of death in the country.