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Article: Supreme Court bans death penalty for juveniles.
- Article from:
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO)
- Article date:
- March 1, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Jon Sawyer
WASHINGTON_The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the death penalty for juveniles was unconstitutional, ending a capital-punishment practice in 19 states that had sparked protests in this country and abroad.
The landmark ruling came in the case of Christopher Simmons, a Missourian who was 17 when he tied up Shirley Crook of Fenton after a robbery and threw her from a railroad bridge into the Meramec River in 1993.
A decade later, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the sentence in a 4-3 ruling that said the execution of killers who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes would violate the Eighth Amendment's ...