365. That is the number of teenagers who have been sentenced to death since the first American execution over 300 years ago ("Juvenile Death"). 365 adolescents who never got the chance to graduate high school, get married, have a family, or realize that life is more important than an impulsive decision made when they were just in high school. The juvenile death sentence unquestionably erodes the Eighth Amendment as it is an extremely cruel and unusual punishment. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as "a human being below the age of 18 years”. By permitting the death penalty we as a country are intentionally allowing children to die. How is that not cruel? Let alone unusual, considering that since 1976, there have been 22 juvenile offenders executed, about 2% of the total executions carried out in the U.S. …show more content…
The United States has very strict limitations on what teenagers can and can’t do. They cannot consume alcohol, they can’t get a license right away, they can’t vote, they can’t buy cigarettes, they can’t even see an R-rated movie . If teenagers are prohibited from doing all of these things, they should also be prohibited from facing the death penalty. All these differences between adults and teenagers further demonstrates that the juvenile death penalty is a cruel punishment and therefore erodes the Eighth Amendment.
More times than not, the teen does not act alone in the crime that they commit. Adults play an enormous part in either helping to commit the offense, or not giving their child enough supervision and love. Juveniles are amongst America’s most vulnerable and victimized individuals, in fact, out of all the juveniles sentenced to death, 60% of them were abused or neglected growing up ("Juvenile Death"). Death is way too big of a punishment for young people who are trying to deal with being the victim of their own