The difference between capital punishment and death row
The term “death penalty” refers to the process by which the death penalty is imposed and carried out for the most serious crimes (capital punishment). The specific crimes and circumstances that determine whether a crime qualifies for the death penalty are defined by statute and prescribed by Congress or any state legislature.
The term “death row” refers to incarcerated people who have been sentenced to death and are awaiting execution (e.g., “death row”). Historically, “death row” was a slang term for an area of a prison where prisoners sentenced to death were housed. Although many states do not have separate units or facilities for sentenced prisoners, use of the term continues (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2021).
Age, crime, and sex
As of 2004, at least 2,225 juvenile offenders were in U.S. prisons without parole. Since there are no national databases tracking juveniles sentenced to life without parole (or indeed no data tracking the presence of child offenders in adult prisons), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International compiled this figure based on data obtained directly from individual countries. Department of Corrections and other sources That number includes juvenile offenders from 40 of the 42 states where juvenile offenders can be sentenced to life in prison without parole and from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The age of a child offender sentenced to life without parole at the time of the crime:
Percentage of child offenders by age:
13.00 to 13.99 years old 0.5%
14.00 to 14.99 years old 2.2%
15.00 to 15.99 years old 13.3%
16.00 to 16.99 years old 32.0%
17.00 to 17.99 years old 52.2%
Source: Data from 38 state corrections departments and other sources in Alabama and Virginia (Parker, 2005).
We have age data for 1,291 child offenders sentenced to life without parole. As shown in Table 2, the youngest child (six in total) was 13 years old at the time of the offense, with an average age of 16. Sixteen percent were jailed for crimes committed when they were 15 or younger. Applying this proportion to the total number of young offenders without parole for life suggests that around 354 young offenders across the country are currently facing life imprisonment for crimes committed before their 16th birthday.
Differences between youth and adults
It goes without saying that children are growing up, both physically and mentally. The identities they form make young offenders ideal candidates for rehabilitation; they are more capable than adults of learning new skills, finding new values, and starting anew for better, law-abiding lives. Justice is best served when these principles of rehabilitation, which lie at the heart of human rights standards, are at the heart of any punishment imposed on child offenders. The sentence must take into account the seriousness of the crime and the culpability of the offender. The problem of culpability is separating children from adults. While children can commit acts as violent and deadly as adults, their level of culpability varies due to their immaturity.
Children may know right from wrong
Proponents of adult sentences rightly point out that most children, even as young as six years old, can parrot that killing is “wrong,” though they often don’t really understand what killing means or why it’s wrong. However, because of their immaturity, children are less developed than adults in their ability to control their impulses, to use reason, to guide their actions, and to think about the consequences of their actions. In short, they are still “growing.” The sentence of life without parole negates this reality and treats child offenders as if their character has been irrevocably set.
References
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2021). Capital Punishment. [online] Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: https://bjs.ojp.gov/topics/corrections/capital-punishment [Accessed 7 November. 2022].
Parker, A. (2005). The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States: Acknowledgements. [online] www.hrw.org. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/us1005/1.htm [Accessed 8 November. 2022].
