lly reversed by a Jury 5-3 in 1982, the sentencing in the trial of Roach v. Martin, which involved a mentally retarded seventeen year old defendant, was the death penalty. In the trial of Thompson v. Oklahoma, fifteen year old Thompson had his sentence reversed after claiming cruel and unusual punishment with emphasis on the 8th Amendment, While in the case of Prejean v. Blackburn in 1984, a seventeen year old was given the death penalty and put to death for the same crime. These inconsistencies challenge the justice of the American Judiciary System and also the strength of the Constitution. The pessimistic view of whether or not the death penalty is the most effective form of deterrent from a life of crime is also a difficult subject. More and more citizens in the United States are beginning to support life in prison without parole sentences as opposed to the death penalty (dpic 1 of 2). Many people feel that juveniles should not be tried as adults, that this constitutes cruel and unfair judgement (long,79). I sincerely feel that if the death penalty is going to be implemented in the juvenile justice system than it has to become more efficient, that is, shorter time on death row for prisoners sentenced to capital punishment, limitations on costly appeals which extend the life of the prisoner, sometimes for decades, and consistency in sentencing of juveniles being tried for capital crimes, then the future of the punishment of these crimes will be life in prison without parole. With overcrowding and increasing costs to housing these juvenile offenders, this is not a sufficient alternative to capital punishment. Reform of the death penalty would mean a better solution and a speedy punishment for crimes committed which deserve this sentence. Some offenders don't deserve to have a lesser sentence that the crime committed, including juvenile violent offenders. In conclusion, this report has discussed some of the history of the question regar...
