Juvenile Death Penalty Today: Present Death Row Inmates Under Juvenile Death Sentences and Death Sentences and Executions for Juvenile Crimes, January 1, 1973, to August 15, 1992

• NCJ Number: 138971
• Author(s): V L Streib
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Cleveland State University
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Both the juvenile death sentencing rate and the juvenile death row population remain very small in comparison to that for adults, each being about 2 percent of the total.

Abstract

Since 1973, 111 juvenile death sentences have been imposed, about 2.4 percent of the approximately 4,653 death sentences imposed for offenders of all ages. Two-thirds of these juvenile death sentences have been imposed on 17-year- old offenders and the other third on offenders aged 15 and 16 years. Of the 111 sentences, only 33 remain in force. Five have resulted in execution, and 73 have been reversed. The rate of juvenile death sentencing fluctuated considerably during the early years of the 1973-1992 period but then settled into a consistent annual rate of about 2 percent of total death sentences in the mid-1980's. A change occurred from 1987 to 1989 when the juvenile death sentencing rate dropped considerably, presumably deterred by cases then pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The rate appears to have returned to the previous pattern of 2 percent now that those cases have been decided. Appendixes provide detailed information on each juvenile death sentence and case summaries for current death row juvenile inmates. 3 tables