Bill again introduced to ban executions of minors

Kirsten Searer

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 11:14 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nevada hasn't executed a juvenile since 1949, but the state does have one man on death row for killing two people when he was 16 years old.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said it's simply wrong to execute people for crimes they committed as children. For the third time, she is backing a bill that would ban executions of people who commit crimes when they are younger than 18.

This time, she said, she hopes the bill can clear the state Senate. In the past, the idea has stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where that committee's chairman, Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, has said he is wary of a blanket ban on sentencing juveniles to death.

This morning, a representative of the Nevada District Attorney's Association asked an Assembly Judiciary Committee to "leave this (death penalty) option on the table."

"It's very rare that we would ask for the death penalty for a younger person, frankly it's very rare we would ask for the death penalty for anyone," said Ben Graham, who represents the association. "On occassion, the death penalty is an appropriate avenue. That's why in good conscience I can sit here before you today and say, 'Take a look at your statutes.' I think they're fair."

Bruce Hahn, a deputy district attorney in Washoe County who has prosecuted death penalty cases, said juries should have the opportunity to consider all options. Juries do, he said, consider youth as a mitigating factor.

But he referenced a case in Northern Nevada in which youths invaded a paraplegic woman's home and tortured her before killing her for $80.

"We believe the people of the state of Nevada and particularly the juries that are seated are willing and capable of making the decisions themselves," he said. "...There are some cases where people want that right."

Opponents to the death penalty for juveniles spent two hours this morning calling it inappropriate and citing research that shows brains aren't fully developed before the age of 18.

"To me, it's a scientific issue," Giunchigliani said, pointing to brain research that shows people under the age of 18 don't fully understand the consequences of their actions.

Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn agrees that people who commit crimes at the age of 16 aren't the "worst of the worst" and are therefore undeserving of death penalty.

Science in the last five to 10 years has proven that children, even at ages 16 and 17, are more susceptible to emotions and peer pressure, Kohn said.

"Minors don't think in the same ways as adults," he said. "They don't see the consequences of their actions."

Judy Phoenix of the Nevada State Psychological Association told the Assembly committee this morning that the teenagers worry more about rewards than risks, discount their future, are more impulsive and have more difficulty managing their emotions than adults do.

"One minute they are the epitomy of reason and good sense, the next minute they are functioning like a two year old only bigger and louder," she said.

Nationally, there are 72 people on death row who committed crimes when they were 16 or 17 years old, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Nevada is one of 14 states that allows the death penalty for juveniles who were as young as 16 when they committed their crimes. Another five states allow the death penalty for juveniles 17 or older.

The proposed change to Nevada law would act retroactively and save Michael Domingues, who was 16 when he killed his neighbor and her 4-year-old son in 1993.

Kohn said he argued on behalf of Domingues before the Nevada Supreme Court. He called the crime "horrible" but said it also was "a childish act to get back at somebody."

Domingues is the only person on death row for a crime committed while a juvenile, but Kohn said he has defended several children who didn't understand their crimes but who were originally charged with the death penalty.