young. This was upheld in the case of Thompson V. Oklahoma (487 U.S. 815,1988). Since juveniles are beginning to get more violent in their acts, should the age be lowered? For instance, the previous scenario states that it was a fourteen year old doing the crime. What if it was a twelve year old? When does a juvenile have to pay fully for the crime he or she committed? If you look at the juvenile criminal statistics today and compare them to twenty years ago, we see a dramatic decrease in violent crime and increase use of death penalty sentences. For example, Proffessor Victor Strieb From Claude W. Petit College of Law (Death Penalty for Juveniles) stated juveniles are one to two percent of all people on death row in the United States, although they commit more than fifty percent of all the murders in the United States. As we look at the history of juveniles sentenced to death, we see that the rate has been steady and has fluctuated by little more than five percent. The History of the death penalty for juveniles began around 1642 with the execution of Thomas Graunger. Thomas Graunger was executed in Plymouth Colony Massachusetts for a crime he committed when he was sixteen years old. He became the first recorded juvenile in what was to become the United States to be executed for an offense committed under the age of eighteen. There were 343 executions of juveniles before the Supreme Court repelled the death penalty. “There have been 13 executions of convicted juveniles since the beginning of the new era. Just like adults, the state of Texas is the leader of juvenile executed with seven. There has been seven Caucasians, five African Americans and one Latino executed. Twelve of those executed were seventeen when they did the crime.” (Strieb, Juveniles on death row) Before June 30, 1988, thirty people were on death row for crimes committed while under the age of eighteen. As of June 1999, there are seventy people on death row ...
