NCJ Number
136688
Journal
Criminal Law Bulletin Volume: 28 Issue: 3 Dated: (May-June 1992) Pages: 246-275
Date Published
1992
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This analysis of patterns of mitigating factors in juvenile death penalty cases encompasses all reported juvenile death penalty cases in the United States from 1973 through May 1, 1991.
Abstract
Within this time frame, the authors identified 91 cases in which appellate courts reviewed death sentences of juveniles. A profile of mitigating circumstances involved in these opinions was compiled for each offender. The descriptive categories used were "troubled" family history and social background, psychological disturbance, mental retardation, indigence, and substance abuse. The findings indicate that juveniles sentenced to death had this matrix of interrelated problems and characteristics in varying combinations, in addition to the common age factor. These mitigating factors did not deter the courts from imposing the death penalty on these juveniles because of two major disadvantages of the criminal process for these offenders. First, the legal process did not consistently ensure the full and fair consideration of mitigating factors known at the sentencing phase of the capital trial. Second, in some cases additional factors emphasized at the appellate stage were not considered at all at the trial stage. 51 footnotes, a table of mitigating-circumstances profiles of juveniles sentenced to death from 1974 through 1991, and a list of juvenile death penalty cases from 1974 through May 1, 1991 (Author abstract modified)