21A Am. Jur. 2d Criminal Law § 886The Eighth and 14th Amendments forbid the imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.1 The supreme court found evidence of national consensus against the death penalty for juveniles, based on the rejection of the juvenile death penalty in the majority of states, the infrequency of its use even where it remains on the books, and the consistency in the trend toward abolition of the practice.2 In the exercise of its own independent judgment, the court concluded that neither retribution nor deterrence provides adequate justification for imposing the death penalty on juvenile offenders.3
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21A Am. Jur. 2d Criminal Law § 886