Significance: This case upheld the widely accepted view that a juvenile should not be given the death penalty for committing a crime.
Background: William Wayne Thompson was 15 years old when he was found guilty, along with three adults, of brutally murdering his former brother-in-law in Oklahoma. According to Oklahoma law, Thompson was still a “child,” but the district attorney got special permission to try Thompson as an adult. This adult status enabled the jury to give Thompson the death penalty. Thompson’s lawyer argued that to execute a juvenile for a crime violated the juvenile’s Eighth Amendment protection against “cruel and unusual” punishment. He appealed the case to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Oklahoma and then to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Decision: This case was argued on November 9, 1987, and decided on June 29, 1988, by a vote of 5 to 3. Justice John Stevens spoke for the Court, with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor concurring and Justice Anthony Kennedy not participating. The Court agreed that Thompson’s sentence was unconstitutional and relieved him of the death penalty. The justices considered that 18 states had already passed laws requiring that a person be at least 16 years old before facing the death penalty for a crime. To execute someone under that age, the Court argued, would offend commonly held civilized standards of decency. The Court also pointed out that juveniles typically have less experience and wisdom than adults to bring to bear on the decision of whether to commit such a crime. Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Byron White and Antonin Scalia dissented. They found Thompson’s age to be inadequate grounds to relieve him of the death penalty.
Excerpt from the Opinion of the Court: “Most relevant, however, is the fact that all States have enacted legislation designating the maximum age for juvenile court jurisdiction at no less than 16. All of this legislation is consistent with the experience of mankind, as well as the long history of our law, that the normal 15-year-old is not prepared to assume the full responsibilities of an adult.”
