Sauron
03-07-2005, 03:59 AM
Not sure which forum this belongs in - but since the DP is kind of a social / moral question, I'll put it here.
I thought this article about Justice Kennedy's 'awakening' was pretty interesting reading:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11877-2005Mar6.html
Kennedy Reversal Swings Court Against Juvenile Death Penalty
By Charles Lane
Monday, March 7, 2005; Page A17
In banning capital punishment for juvenile offenders last week, the Supreme Court once again demonstrated its pivotal role in domestic and, indeed, world affairs.
The 5 to 4 ruling swept aside laws in 20 states that permitted juries to sentence 16- or 17-year-old murderers to death, thus ending the United States' status as the last country on Earth that sanctioned the execution of those who commit crimes when they are younger than 18.
And, to a large extent, this result was due to a remarkable evolution by a single justice: Anthony M. Kennedy.
[...]
In 1989, during his first full term, Kennedy voted with a five-justice majority to uphold the death penalty for juvenile offenders. In that case, Stanford v. Kentucky, he joined an opinion by fellow Reagan appointee Antonin Scalia.
Reaching the opposite result in last week's case, Roper v. Simmons, Kennedy, writing for the majority, argued that times have changed. The number of states that either have no capital punishment or do not allow it for offenders under 18 had reached 30 -- evidence, Kennedy wrote, of "a national consensus" against the juvenile death penalty that had emerged since Stanford.
But his opinion also repudiated the legal reasoning he embraced in Scalia's opinion 16 years ago.
I thought this article about Justice Kennedy's 'awakening' was pretty interesting reading:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11877-2005Mar6.html
Kennedy Reversal Swings Court Against Juvenile Death Penalty
By Charles Lane
Monday, March 7, 2005; Page A17
In banning capital punishment for juvenile offenders last week, the Supreme Court once again demonstrated its pivotal role in domestic and, indeed, world affairs.
The 5 to 4 ruling swept aside laws in 20 states that permitted juries to sentence 16- or 17-year-old murderers to death, thus ending the United States' status as the last country on Earth that sanctioned the execution of those who commit crimes when they are younger than 18.
And, to a large extent, this result was due to a remarkable evolution by a single justice: Anthony M. Kennedy.
[...]
In 1989, during his first full term, Kennedy voted with a five-justice majority to uphold the death penalty for juvenile offenders. In that case, Stanford v. Kentucky, he joined an opinion by fellow Reagan appointee Antonin Scalia.
Reaching the opposite result in last week's case, Roper v. Simmons, Kennedy, writing for the majority, argued that times have changed. The number of states that either have no capital punishment or do not allow it for offenders under 18 had reached 30 -- evidence, Kennedy wrote, of "a national consensus" against the juvenile death penalty that had emerged since Stanford.
But his opinion also repudiated the legal reasoning he embraced in Scalia's opinion 16 years ago.