stablishedfrom the start. Next we will discuss the two pivotal courtcases that set the precedent for our current juvenile deathpenalty statutes.William Wayne Thompson, only fifteen years of age, andthree older persons were all found guilty of first degreemurder back in December of 1983. He was convicted ofmurdering his brother-in-law in a most “heinous, atrocious,and cruel” (Ricotta, 1988) way. After the district courtdecided that their was “no reasonable prospects forrehabilitation” (Ricotta, 1988) it was decided that he wouldbe tried as an adult. The Supreme Court of the UnitedStates had to decide whether he could then be subject toadult punishment which brought up the question of the eighthamendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” clause. TheCourt justified the use of adult punishment by coining aphrase that was used often in the written opinions by theJustices. They stated that the discretion would be left upto judges to determine the “evolving standards of decencythat mark the progress of a maturing society” (Ricotta,1988) since they could not resolve what the writers of theConstitution explicitly meant by cruel and unusual. In this case, Thompson vs. Oklahoma (1988), theJustices concluded that fifteen year olds were not preparedto assume the responsibilities of an adult (Ricotta, 1988). To this day no state allows the death penalty to beappointed to any person under the age of sixteen. The nextyear in Stanford vs. Kentucky (1989), the courts emphasizedthe notion that the eighth amendment does not prohibitjuvenile execution for those age sixteen or seventeen (Beck,1999). These cases are the key events in the development inthis issue. There are also International laws that speak ofthis topic.Steven Hawkins, director of the National Coalition toabolish the Death Penalty, quotes in the article Dead TeenWalking that “[w]e should be embarrassed to find ourselvesin [t...
