Time for change in death penalty

January 29, 2002

Our position: Indiana should not execute prisoners for crimes committed as juveniles.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday takes up SB 426, which would make juvenile killers ineligible for Indiana's death penalty. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Anita Bowser, D-Michigan City, sets a policy most Hoosiers can live with. Indiana is among 23 states that permit the execution of people who killed when they were juveniles, and it's one of 10 states considering laws that would end the practice. Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1977, 18 prisoners across the U.S. have been executed for crimes committed when they were children.

Changing the minimum age makes sense as attitudes about capital punishment and its cost-effectiveness evolve.

In a new poll by the Indiana University Center for Survey Research, three-fourths of respondents said the state ought to keep its capital punishment sentencing option. But when asked if they preferred the death penalty or an option of a life sentence with no chance for parole, respondents split 47-47. The rest didn't know.

Those results should interest the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Richard Bray, R-Martinsville. The 524 Hoosiers polled represented a cross-section of the state.

While there is no consensus for doing away with capital punishment, ending the practice for juveniles would give meaning to Indiana's constitutional requirement of rehabilitative justice.

In 1988, the government banned the execution of juveniles in federal cases. The American Bar Association has opposed it since 1983. Indiana raised the minimum age for imposing the death penalty to 16 after an international outcry over the 1985 case of Paula Cooper, the 15-year-old Gary girl who killed a Sunday school teacher.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider SB 426 at 8:30 a.m.Wednesday in Room 130 of the Statehouse. Its approval will send the message that Indiana doesn't give up on even its most troubled juveniles