Supreme Court to Review Cases of Juvenile Killers

America's supreme court intervened in the highly charged debate on the execution of juvenile killers yesterday, saying it would review the fate of teenagers condemned to death row.

In a statement that offers the hope of reprieve to scores of convicts, it said it would examine the cases of killers who were 16 or 17 years old when they committed their crimes, and decide whether their execution would violate a constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment.

The US remains one of the few states in the world to execute killers who were under 18 at the time of their crimes, and death row has 82 such killers.

The supreme court banned the execution of the mentally retarded after a similar review two years ago, and activists yesterday were hoping for a similar outcome.

"This could end the death penalty for juvenile offenders," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre. "This is at least the first step in reviewing the whole issue."

The supreme court, however, is divided on the issue. Four judges are known to support a ban. Last year, the four in a statement condemned the execution of juveniles as "a relic of the past inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in a civilised society".

Despite such sentiments, the supreme court has declined to intervene in several recent appeals by death row inmates.

The case it took up yesterday arose from a decision by the Missouri state supreme court to overturn a death sentence imposed on a man convicted of throwing a woman to her death off a railway bridge. Christopher Simmons was 17 in 1993 when he robbed her, wrapped her head in duct tape and killed her. The Missouri supreme court sentenced him to life in prison instead.

Death penalty opponents hope the US supreme court will be guided in its deliberations by what they say is a shift in public opinion against the execution of minors.

In its 2002 decision to abolish the death penalty for the mentally handicapped, the supreme court reviewed decisions by state legislatures and courts to arrive at its decision that society no longer believed in executing killers of diminished mental capacity.

Opponents of the death penalty say similar changes in public opinion have been under way in regard to juvenile offenders. Seventeen of the 29 US states that have the death penalty ban the execution of juvenile offenders, and qualms have been detected even in Virginia, which has sent more prisoners to death row than any other state after Texas.

Last year, a Virginia jury refused to impose a death penalty on Lee Boyd Malvo after convicting him of the Washington area sniper shootings. He was 17 at the time.