Why do we kill people who kill people, yadda yadda

[primroseburrows]

US Supreme Court Rules Juvenile Death Penalty Unconstitutional.

Well, glory be. The Supreme Court has finally decided that (*gasp!*) killing teenagers is a Bad Thing. Woah.

The beginning of a slippery slope? Gods, I hope so.

Comments

[patchfire.livejournal.com]

The story I saw about it mentioned that it was the second or third ruling in the last four-five years that placed limits on capital punishment, enough so that some people are seeing a trend. With the current Court, it almost seems plausible that we could have a repeat of the '76 (I think it was '76) decision ruling all capital punishment unConstitutional.

One can hope. :)

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

According to this CNN story, Jimmy's in favour of it (I knew he would be). *loves him so*

[diamond-dust06.livejournal.com]

There was such a ruling? Then how come we still have the death penalty?

[patchfire.livejournal.com]

It itself was overturned a few years later. The 'problem,' if you will, is that it didn't reinstate any death penalties that it had overturned, and many of those people are now on life sentences with the possibility of parole. (I'm a big fan of life-without-possibility-of-parole; that's torturing someone.) Case in point is Charles Manson; he was sentenced to death, now he comes up for parole every 7 years. And he applies for it. Assuming she's still alive, Sharon Tate's mother goes up every 7 years to argue against it. Not that there's much danger of him being released, but.