Brain research makes the case against putting teens to death.

Many states, including Kentucky, exclude those who are mentally retarded from the death penalty. Even those who support the death penalty tend to agree that mentally retarded defendants should not be executed because they are not fully aware of the consequences of their actions.

Now, new brain research shows that juveniles should also be excluded from the death penalty for similar reasons.

Juveniles are far less developed than we ever knew, according to groundbreaking research. The studies have prompted many in the medical, psychological and scientific communities to support proposals that would bar those under the age of 18 from capital punishment.

Those in favor of the death penalty for juveniles argue that 16- and 17-year-olds who commit adult crimes should be subject to adult penalties, including death.

No one is suggesting that juveniles who commit heinous crimes shouldn't be responsible for their actions, but recent discoveries on juvenile development, as reported in a Harvard Medical School publication, challenge the commonly held tenet that the brain finishes development at puberty.

Just as adolescents exhibit growth spurts, various features of their brains undergo dramatic changes as well. The frontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex, among other parts of the brain, don't develop fully until the early to mid-20s. These are the ``executive'' areas of the brain, which, among other things, calm emotions, control impulses, make decisions, process abstract ideas and organize and plan multiple tasks.

It's time for Kentucky to revise its death penalty procedures to reflect these medical findings about juvenile development. Longstanding traditions of American law base the degree of punishment on the degree of fully formed intent. Because we now know that offenders under the age of 18 are less mature than their adult counterparts, it is immoral to execute teen-agers under the assumption that they are fully formed adults.

According to Jay Giedd of the National Institute of Mental Health, this brain ``maturation ... continues into the teen years and even the 20s.'' Recent research by Dr. Bruce Perry of the Baylor College of Medicine has also found that child abuse and neglect have profound, permanent and harmful effects on brain development.

Scientific proof that even normal adolescents are in far less control of their thoughts, impulses and actions shows us that they should not be held to the same standard of punishment as fully developed adults.

How can anyone decide that a sexually assaulted, abused, neglected, borderline retarded or impaired teen-ager should be subject to the same standard of punishment as an adult?

As it is, the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that still executes juveniles. The countries that have executed juveniles in the last 10 years include the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, according to Amnesty International. Of those countries, the United States carried out the greatest number (9) of known executions.

The American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the 40,000-member American Psychiatric Association have all adopted policies specifically opposing capital punishment for those under 18.

The medical community is not alone. A recent statewide poll shows 8 out of 10 Kentuckians favor a sentence other than death for a 17- or 18-year-old who commits an aggravated murder.

In this session, the Kentucky General Assembly is expected to take up the issue of juvenile executions. No matter how Kentucky voters feel about the death penalty, the state has no business executing juvenile offenders.

(source: Opinion, Herald-Leader;
Dr. Mark S. Wright is president of the Kentucky Psychiatric Association)