Wednesday, January 1, 2003 –

Texas has executed almost as many people as all other states combined. But it also is a leader in putting to death juvenile offenders. This summer alone, Texas executed three young men who were younger than 18 when they committed capital murder: Napoleon Beazley, 25, in May and T. J. Jones, 25, and Toronto Patterson, 24, in August. Support for the death penalty is strong, even fierce, among Texans. But even those who favor a death penalty for adults are uncomfortable with it for juvenile killers. The Legislature must draw the line at executing 17-year-old offenders. A 2001 poll by the Houston Chronicle underscores that point: Thirty- four percent of those polled supported executing juvenile offenders compared with 42 percent who opposed it. About 23 percent had no opinion or weren't sure. Even in Harris County, which critics dubbed "the death capital" because it outpaces other states in sending convicted killers to death row, there was little support for giving 17-year-olds the ultimate punishment. We, too, oppose sentencing juvenile offenders to death.

To do so is to categorically reject any notion that teenagers are redeemable and able to be rehabilitated, that they are capable of growth, development and change. Texas law recognizes their immaturity and distinguishes them from adults; they can't legally buy cigarettes, vote, sit on juries or enter contractual agreements.

A death sentence for a 17-year-old doesn't take into account social and physiological differences between adolescents and adults or new research regarding brain development of teenagers. This year, a split U. S. Supreme Court also signaled its concerns about whether that punishment violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In considering whether to ban such executions, the Legislature should take a long, hard look at the rest of the United States and the world. Twenty-two states permit such executions, but few actually carry them out. The Lone Star State is practicing this macabre punishment in near solitude.

New developments should also give us pause, including a growing number of wrongly convicted people here and across the nation who were released after being cleared by DNA evidence. An increasing number of convictions also have been overturned because of false confessions. A judge recently overturned the convictions of five black and Hispanic young men in New York prisons who were convicted of brutally raping and assaulting a female jogger in Central Park. They were between the ages of 14 and 16 when they were convicted, largely because of confessions that turned out to be false. Legal experts long have asserted that minors are more susceptible to being coerced into falsely confessing.

In Texas, there should be greater concern regarding innocent people being executed, given the failure of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to provide the judicial scrutiny death row cases deserve and the law intends. A recent study shows that the court regularly failed to ensure death row inmates got competent lawyers to handle their appeals. The appeals process typically is all that stands between the innocent and lethal injection. We hope the Legislature will consider those issues and ban executions of juveniles. Surely we can incapacitate teenage offenders without killing them.

Editorial, Austin American-Statesman

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