Minimum age for death penalty might be raised

Erin Neff

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 | 11:28 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- With adrenaline pumping and a lack of neurological development, most teens cannot reason that their actions can lead to murder, experts testified this morning.

As a result, two doctors said, Nevada should increase the minimum age of people eligible for the death penalty from 16 to 18 years.

Only Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo and 18 U.S. states currently have laws allowing for the execution of 16- and 17-year-olds.

"This is the kind of company we keep with Nevada's laws the way they are," Mark Blaskey, chief public defender in Clark County, said.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, is sponsoring Assembly Bill 327 to increase the minimum age of those eligible for the death penalty. The bill also allows the defense to have the final rebuttal during the penalty phase of all death penalty cases.

Giunchigliani said she used to support the death penalty, in part because one of her youngest sisters was kidnapped, raped repeatedly for five days and murdered in California years ago. Her sister's murderer is serving life without parole in that state, Giunchigliani said after revealing that family history publicly for the first time.

But Giunchigliani said her research on the death penalty, coupled with the teachings of her Catholic faith, have led her to change her mind.

"I think I had to reconsider my emotions," Giunchigliani told the Assembly Judiciary Committee. "Our kids just do not process. Their development is not there."

Dr. Ole Thienhaus, professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno's School of Medicine, said a teen's brain does not fully develop until age 20.

Thienhaus interviews juveniles who are incarcerated in capital cases.

"I find them decidedly unlikable," Thienhaus said.

But Thienhaus also said his training in neuroscience tells him the majority of adolescents under age 18 do not understand the consequences of their actions.

Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, said he "didn't buy" the psychiatrist's argument.

"I just can't believe that somebody doesn't have enough gray matter when they plot something, like the kids in Columbine," Carpenter said.

Just as they did yesterday on a Senate bill seeking to outlaw the death penalty, prosecutors from Northern and Southern Nevada testified against AB327.

David Sarnowski, chief deputy criminal attorney general, said prosecutors use caution when considering whether to seek the death penalty against teens.

"Juries are reticent to sentence young offenders to death," Sarnowski said.

The committee was also scheduled to hear testimony this morning on two other death penalty bills.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, sponsored Assembly Bill 353 to prohibit sentencing mentally retarded people to death. Assemblyman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas, sponsored Assembly Bill 354 to require genetic testing and analysis of evidence that may contain information relating to the investigation or prosecution that resulted in conviction and a sentence of death.