Supreme Court rules against executions of juveniles

"This is a major victory for all abolitionists! Another leg has been kicked out from under the table of the racist, anti-poor death penalty," exclaimed Njeri Shakur through tears of joy March 1, upon finding out that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled five to four that executing juveniles is cruel and unusual punishment.

This ruling affects the 72 people on death rows in the United States who were 16 or 17 when charged with capital murder. Twenty-nine of these people are on death row in Texas.

The last person sent to Texas death row was Robert Acuña, who was convicted of capital murder last August. The defense tried to persuade the Houston district attorney to delay the trial until this anticipated ruling, but the district attorney refused.

Barbara Acuña told Workers World: "I was so very happy and relieved with this ruling today. It has been so traumatic for our family. I can't wait to see my son in the morning. I am grateful to all those attorneys and activists who have fought for this."

Acuña and other death-row mothers will speak at a news conference March 2, called by the Texas Death Penalty Aboli tion Movement to speak about the ruling and the effects on a family that has had a 17-year-old sent to be killed by the state.

One of the most well-known juvenile cases in Texas was that of Shaka Sankofa, executed in 2000. Another was Napoleon Beazley, executed in 2002.

Beazley's parents reacted to the ruling with mixed emotions. "We know this is a victory and we are so very happy, but at the same time, our hearts still ache for Napoleon. This ruling should have come sooner," they said.

Since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated in the United States, 22 juveniles have been executed, 13 of them in Texas.

The first execution of a juvenile offender was in 1642: Thomas Graunger, 16 years old, in Plymouth Colony, Mass. In the 360 years since that time, approximately 365 persons have been executed for juvenile crimes.

The youngest known person to be executed in the United States was James Arcene, a Native American boy who was 10 years old at the time of his "crime."

Since World War II, the youngest person to be executed in the United States was George Stinney, a 14-year-old African American boy who was so small, weighing only 95 pounds, that the oversized mask fell off his face while he was being electrocuted by the state of South Carolina.

Of the 73 juvenile offenders currently on death row and those executed in the current era, two out of three have been either African American or Latino.

Of the 10 female juvenile offenders executed in the United States, eight were African-American and one was Native American. In each of those cases, the victim was white.

Southern states account for 84 percent of all death sentences imposed on juvenile offenders since 1973. Only three states--Texas, Florida and Alabama--account for half of those sentences.

The independent mass struggle must continue until the racist, anti-poor death penalty is abolished once and for all.