Death Penalty – Fact Sheets


The Death Penalty Gives Up On Juvenile Offenders

An almost universal prohibition exists on the execution of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crime.

Since 2000, only five countries in the world are known to have executed juvenile offenders: China, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iran, Pakistan, and the United States. Pakistan and China have abolished the juvenile death penalty, but there have been problems in nationwide compliance with the law.

Stop Child Executions! As a step towards the total abolition of the death penalty around the world, Amnesty International has launched an international campaign calling for an end to the use of the death penalty against child offenders.
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In August 2000, the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights resolved that the execution of people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crime “is contrary to customary international law.” A principle of customary international law is a general practice accepted as law. It is binding on all countries, regardless of which treaties they have or have not ratified.

The United States and Somalia are the only countries in the world that have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Twenty-one* U.S. states allow for the execution of people who were 16 or 17 at the time of the crime. Out of the 38 death penalty states, 16 have abolished this punishment for juvenile offenders.

In the past five years, the United States has executed 13 juvenile offenders. Eight of these executions took place in the state of Texas. The rest of the world combined carried out five such executions. The United States accounts for four of the last five known juvenile offender executions in the last two years.

As of January 2004, more than 70 juvenile offenders sat on death rows throughout the United States; this constitutes approximately 2% of the total death row population.

In 2002, a Gallup survey found that 69 percent of Americans oppose capital punishment for juvenile offenders.

Four Supreme Court Justices recently described the execution of young offenders as a “relic of the past” and a “shameful practice” that should be ended.

In 2003, legislators in 14 states that still allow for the execution of juvenile offenders considered bills to abolish the practice. Bills that would ban the death penalty for juvenile offenders cleared legislative committee hurdles in Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, and South Dakota, but ultimately did not pass.

Organizations including the American Bar Association, American Psychiatric Association, Child Welfare League of America, Coalition for Juvenile Justice, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, National Mental Health Association, and Physicians for Human Rights have expressed opposition to the juvenile death penalty.

"I don't think we should be proud of the fact that the United States is the world leader in the execution of child offenders." –U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, November 11, 1999


* The Missouri Supreme Court recently held the juvenile death penalty to be unconstitutional under federal law, a decision that may or may not be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Legislatively, the juvenile death penalty is still on the books in Missouri.