The Supreme Court is considering whether the US is out of step with standards of decency by allowing children to be put to death.
Nineteen states allow capital punishment for 16- and 17-year-olds, and more than 70 juvenile murderers are on death row.
Justices were hearing arguments yesterday in a case that will determine whether those executions are unconstitutionally cruel, the latest step in the Supreme Court's reexamination of capital punishment in the US.
The court has already barred death penalty sentences for the mentally retarded and for people under age 16.
At issue for the court is whether people under 18 should be treated as adults.
Juvenile offenders are executed in just a few other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia.
International leaders contend that the practice leaves the US diplomatically isolated and vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy on human-rights issues.
The Supreme Court has looked increasingly at international opinion, and its four most liberal members have gone on record against a practice they said was "a relic of the past and is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in a civilized society."
Justices are considering a case involving the kidnapping and killing of a Missouri woman. Two teens forced the victim, wearing only underwear and cowboy boots, into a van and later threw her off a bridge to drown.
A 17-year-old, Christopher Simmons, was sentenced to die for the 1993 murder, but Missouri's highest court overturned the death sentence last year.
A younger teen was sentenced to life in prison.
Supporters of the death penalty, including families of victims, traveled to Washington for the landmark case.
"The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst. It is not just for adults," said Dianne Clements, president of the victims' rights group Justice For All.
"It doesn't matter how old the killer is. What matters is that your loved one is gone," Clements said.
Simmons, meanwhile, has big name supporters.
Former US president Jimmy Carter said the Supreme Court should recognize that "basic principles of American justice require rejection of child offender executions once and for all."
And C. Everett Koop, a former surgeon general, said scientific research shows that "juveniles are underdeveloped and immature, particularly in the areas of the brain that dictate reason, impulse control and decision-making."
Moderate Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy will probably cast the crucial swing votes, as they did two years ago when justices barred executions of the mentally retarded on a 6 to 3 vote.
That ruling drew fierce dissents from the court's three most conservative members, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Justice John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have said it is shameful to execute juvenile killers.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not