Press Release

Humanists Laud Court Decision Striking Juvenile Death Penalty:
Practice Declared Cruel and Unusual

For Immediate Release - Contact: Roy Speckhardt (202) 238-9088
rspeckhardt@americanhumanist.org - www.americanhumanist.org

(Washington, DC, March 1, 2005) The Supreme Court announced today that the execution of Americans under eighteen is unconstitutional. “We commend the Supreme Court’ s decision which recognizes that the juvenile death penalty is “cruel and unusual,” states Tony Hileman, executive director of the American Humanist Association.

“There’s a sickness in thinking justice can be found in killing juveniles and the mentally disabled,” says Hileman. This follows in the footsteps of the Court’s 2002 decision in protecting the mentally disabled from execution.

“It’s a triumph that the Supreme Court sees the severity and injustice of existing capital punishment laws, has recognized the trend in our society away from such heinous retributions, and has taken a bold step in the right direction,” adds Hileman.

“The freedom and dignity of the individual person is a central Humanist value. Archaic capital punishment laws lag behind our societies’ moral sensibility and we must acknowledge that use of the death penalty is dangerous to individual life and liberty,” continues Hileman.

“The reverberations of this landmark case are extraordinary—seventy juveniles will be immediately spared execution and laws in nineteen states will be overturned,” he adds.

As we said nearly thirty years ago, “capital punishment is a brutal and inhumane method of public vengeance and is not an effective deterrent of violent crime,” Hileman concludes.

The American Humanist Association is the oldest and largest Humanist organization in the nation. The AHA is dedicated to ensuring a voice for those with a positive nontheistic outlook, based on reason and experience, which embraces all of humanity .

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