NCJ Number
152781
Date Published
1993
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This video, a "48 hours" (CBS television) production, presents attitudes for and against the death penalty for juveniles, based on interviews with death row inmates sentenced to death for crimes committed as juveniles, victims' families and friends, and criminal justice professionals.
Abstract
The video profiles a number of murder cases that involved convictions of persons who were juveniles when the crimes were committed. Victims' family members and friends describe their shock, sadness, and anger at the deaths of their loved ones. When asked about the appropriateness of the death penalty for the juvenile who did the crime, all believe it to be just. One family member comments that the sentence should match the nature of the crime regardless of the offender's age. All prosecutors interviewed believe the juveniles were appropriately sentenced to death for the crimes for which they prosecuted them. The offenders who are on death row for murders committed as juveniles do not believe they deserve the death penalty, given the maladjusted mental states partly attributable to their youthfulness. A number of defense attorneys argue that juveniles who kill typically have been severely abused as children and manifest behavioral disorders that require treatment in a custodial facility, rather than death.