Panel OKs ban on death penalty for those under 18

Erin Neff

Friday, March 28, 2003 | 11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- In a surprise show of bipartisan support, the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously voted to prohibit the execution of people who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime.

Current state law allows the death penalty to be imposed on defendants who were older than 15 when they committed their crimes. Assembly Bill 118, sponsored by Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, would raise the age threshold so that those who were ages 16 and 17 would automatically receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The committee watched intently as child psychiatrist David Fassler, a professor at the University of Vermont's College of Medicine, pointed to different parts of a brain model in his hands to discuss development.

"From a clinical, developmental standpoint, our objection is rooted in the fact that the brains of adolescents function in fundamentally different ways than the brains of adults," said Fassler, a trustee of the American Psychiatric Association who was flown to Carson City by the committee.

Fassler said the instinctual part of the brain, governing gut reactions like fear and aggression, develops first.

The frontal cortex, which develops throughout the teenage years, controls cognitive thought, planning and judgment.

"Adolescents are cognitively and emotionally less mature than adults," Fassler said.

Giunchigliani said it makes no sense to restrict teens from going to certain movies, driving, voting, drinking and marrying and to keep the death penalty for those 16 and 17.

AB118 would apply to Nevada's only current death row inmate who was under 18 at the time of his crime. If approved by both houses and signed by the governor, AB118 would commute Michael Domingues's sentence to life without the possibility of parole.

Domingues was 16 in 1993 when he killed his Las Vegas neighbor, Arjim Pechpho, 24, and her 4-year-old son, Jonathan Smith.

Ben Graham, a lobbyist for the Nevada District Attorney's Association, presented the only opposition to the bill.

"All of the evidence (about mental development) is available today under our mitigating circumstance of youth," Graham said.

The United States is one of only seven countries in which the execution of those under 18 at the time of their crime is allowed. The federal government does not do it, however, and 28 states do not allow it.

Although a similar measure brought by Giunchigliani died in his committee in 2001, Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, asked for a role call vote on the bill, sensing some support Thursday.

All 15 members, including the seven Republicans, voted to pass the bill.

A shocked Giunchigliani, who had already walked to her office sensing no vote would be taken, smiled widely and returned to the hallway to begin thanking committee members.

Politically, the unanimous vote in committee bodes well for the bill's future in the Assembly, as lawmakers will look to the committee's vote as a guide.

AB118 now goes to the full Assembly for a vote.