Disagreement Over Death Sentence Ban

Re “Supreme Court Bans Execution of Juveniles,” March 2: How come the folks who want the U.S. Supreme Court to allow posting the Ten Commandments on courthouses in Texas also want the court to allow the execution of juveniles? I guess it’s just the Nine Commandments they want -- that pesky old “Thou Shalt Not Kill” can go.

Phil Brimble

Los Angeles

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By ruling that juvenile criminals under age 18 could no longer receive the death penalty, because such executions were cruel, the U.S. Supreme Court made a bad decision. What is important is not the age of the offender but the type and brutality of the crime committed. Some youth crimes are vicious and violent, and such offenders deserve to die. Victims and their families deserve justice. Allowing such violent young criminals to live merely because of their age is a slap on the face to the victims’ families.

Kenneth L. Zimmerman

Huntington Beach

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Justice Sandra Day O’Connor believes no national consensus has formed against the death penalty for juveniles, and justices Antonin Scalia, William H. Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas believe that, in its decision, the court has proclaimed itself “the sole arbiter of our nation’s moral standards.” To the contrary, recent polls in some states that allow the death penalty for juveniles indicate that their citizens think it should end: 62% in Oklahoma, 55% in Missouri and 60% in Georgia. Even in Texas, only one in four favors the death penalty for juveniles.

Federal law has finally caught up to the opinion of the American public -- and, yes, Antonin, world opinion -- on this matter. It’s shocking that four justices still live in such backward times.

John McCormack

Los Angeles

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Shame on you, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy! Your ruling has essentially given young gangbanger thugs a license to kill, thus infringing on Americans’ right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Your oath was to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution, not the will of those abroad. If Europeans don’t like our death penalty, they know the penalty of killing someone here. You, sir, are not in Rome! Either defend American citizens or get off the bench!

Scott Tucker

Monterey Park