PHR Library

July 19, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Former US Surgeons General and More Than 400 Child Health Professionals Call for an End to the Juvenile Death Penalty

Statement from Health Professionals Submitted to the Supreme Court

US Surgeons General C. Everett Koop and Julius Richmond, Dr. Alvin Poussaint and over 400 other prominent health professionals and organizations across the United States have endorsed the Health Professionals' Call to Abolish the Execution of Juvenile Offenders in the United States, which calls for an end to the juvenile death penalty based on the science of adolescent development. The Health Professionals' Call was submitted to the US Supreme Court, today, as part of an amicus brief in Roper v. Simmons, a case to come before the Court this Fall that will review the constitutionality of the death penalty for youths under eighteen at the time of their crime. The Health Professionals' Call, organized by Physicians for Human Rights, reflects the widespread scientific consensus that minors "do not yet possess the maturity and mental capacities required to justify the imposition of the ultimate adult punishment."

"There is a consensus among health professions that because adolescents are not adults, the death penalty, the most severe and irrevocable adult punishment, is absolutely inappropriate. Such a punishment disregards adolescents' immaturity and significantly lessened mental capacities compared with their adult-counterparts, which has been confirmed by the latest scientific studies of the adolescent brain," said Call endorser Dr. Alvin Poussaint, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "What is especially unsuitable about the juvenile death penalty is that the majority of children considered for this punishment have been victims of abuses and neglect that have medically disrupted their emotional and cognitive development. This is not to say that juvenile offenders do not know right from wrong and should not be appropriately punished, but the medical community sincerely believes that the United States should not allow the option to execute youngsters who have not finished developing into adults.

Endorsers of the Health Professionals' Call to Abolish include leaders in pediatrics (among them four winners of the American Academy of Pediatrics C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development -- Dr. Leon Eisenberg, Dr. Karen Olness, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and Dr. Richmond), human brain development (including Dr. Judith Rapoport of George Washington University, Dr. Charles Nelson of the University of Minnesota, and Dr. Bruce McEwen of the Rockefeller University and Past President of the Society for Neuroscience), and child and adolescent psychiatry (including Dr. Marilyn B. Benoit, immediate Past President of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry). The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, the International Pediatric Association, and (in their individual capacities) current and past leaders of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the Society for Neuroscience and many more have also added their names to the Health Professionals' Call to Abolish.

These health professionals do not seek to minimize or excuse the offense of murder, and its impact on the victims' families, nor say that juvenile offenders do not know right from wrong and should not be seriously punished. They state that juveniles are, by definition, less culpable than adults and should not be subject to the ultimate level of punishment.

Adolescent behavior is dominated by the region of the brain associated with impulse and aggression. Modern neurological research (recently publicized by the National Institute of Mental Health) strongly suggests that the part of the brain which controls such impulse and aggression, and which also permits anticipation of consequences, consideration of alternatives, planning and organization of sequential behavior, does not fully mature until at least the age of eighteen. Such research has led experts in adolescent development to conclude that it is unreasonable to impose expectations of adult-level capacities on the thinking and behavior of minors.

The Health Professionals' Call to Abolish also states that childhood abuse, neglect and mental impairment can further diminish adolescents' lesser cognitive and emotional capacities. These kinds of disturbances inhibit natural growth and development and profoundly exacerbate the existing vulnerabilities of youth.

As the United States Supreme Court prepares for opening arguments in Roper v. Simmons this Fall, the endorsers of the Health Professionals' Call to Abolish the Execution of Juvenile Offenders in the United States express a consensus that, based on knowledge that adolescents are underdeveloped and that youth who commit the crimes are oftentimes impaired, the Court should find the death penalty for juveniles unconstitutional.

In addition, briefs on behalf of Christopher Simmons were filed today by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates including former President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former South African President F. W. de Klerk and the Dalai Lama, nine former U.S. Diplomats, the leading national medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, legal and religious institutions and nearly 50 countries including the European Union and Members of the International Community.  

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) mobilizes the health professions to advance the health and dignity of all people by protecting human rights. As a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, PHR shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.