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Long
Beach reacts to death penalty ruling
By
Krystle Ralston
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
On
March 1 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
executing criminals under the age of 18
is unconstitutional, which allowed 72 inmates
who committed crimes as teenagers to cheat
death.
The
5-4 vote was justified by explaining that
those of young age "are not among the
worst offenders" and do not have a
firm grasp on the concept of right and wrong.
This decision follows yet another ban of
execution of those who are mentally retarded,
which was overruled in 2002.
The
execution of juveniles was decided as "cruel
and unusual punishment" under the eighth
amendment of the Constitution. Those the
decision affects will most likely serve
a lifetime in prison.
The
first decision made to execute those under
18 was in 1989, which allowed 16 and 17-year-olds
to receive the death penalty. In 1988, the
United States ruled against having a death
penalty for those that were 15 or younger.
Sixteen states ruled against it, which caused
young people to be tried within the states
that it was instated. The United States
is the only country that has had a juvenile
death penalty.
Cal
State Long Beach students have multiple
views about the matter.
"I
believe that they should be given a chance.
We're not helping, not rehabilitating them,
we're just throwing them away like yesterday's
trash," said freshman nursing student
Nikki Laqui.
"What
makes us any better than them, they kill,
then we kill," said freshman nursing
student Rachel Brown. "We are no better
or justified in doing the same. I don't
think they're really old enough to understand."
Not
all students at CSULB are opposed to the
idea of a death penalty for the youth. "If
they kill because they like to kill, they
should be punished for it," said junior
Liberal Studies major Leticia Orozco. "Even
when you're young, you know what you're
doing when you do it. A 17-year-old can
be ruthless, and they have their whole lives
to keep doing what they're doing."
On
the day the ruling was decided, in a news
release by the Office of Attorney General
Henry McMaster of South Carolina, he said,
"While I firmly believe that adult
crimes usually deserve adult punishment,
the Supreme Court's decision brings clarity
to an issue that has conflicted the hearts
of many Americans. It is now the law of
the land and will be followed as such."
The
United Nation's Convention on the Rights
of the Child bans the death penalty against
minor offenders, and this has been recognized
by every country in the world except Somalia
and the United States. It can be argued
that the country of Somalia has no recognized
government, unlike the United States.
In
the last decade, the states in the United
States that have executed minors were Texas,
Oklahoma and Virginia.
The
executive director of Amnesty International
USA William Schulz said, "Today, the
court repudiated the misguided idea that
the United States can pledge to leave no
child behind while simultaneously exiling
children to the death chamber."
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