Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 15:06:45 -0600
From: Moses Klein <klein@MATH.WISC.EDU>
To: ABOLISH@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: Juvenile executions

Thank you Rick for passing on the alert about the juvenile offender's
pending execution in Texas. Since we'll all be writing appeals about this,
I figure it's time to dust off some of my documents on juveniles and the
death penalty. Some facts we can all cite, to demonstrate just how out of
line the USA is with international human rights standards on this issue:


A) The only other countries to have executed juvenile offenders in the
past 10 years are Yemen, Pakistan, Iran, Sa'udi Arabia, and Nigeria.


(B) Some relevant treaties you can cite:


1) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified by USA
in 1991), Article 6(5):

Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by
persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant
women.


(2) American Convention on Human Rights, Article 4(5):

5. Capital punishment shall not be imposed upon persons who, at the time the
crime was committed, were under 18 years of age or over 70 years of age; nor
shall it be applied to pregnant women.


(3) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (still not ratified by the US
Senate*), Article 37:

   States Parties shall ensure that:

   (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or
   degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life
   imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for
   offences committed by persons below 18 years of age;
   ...

(*) Interesting note: this treaty is the closest that the world has to a
universally ratified human rights standard. Apart from Somalia, which
doesn't even have a government which could sign and ratify the treaty, the
USA is the *only* member of the UN which has not ratified this agreement.


Moses Klein (klein@math.wisc.edu)