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Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison
Publication year:
2007
| Cataloged on:
Nov. 20, 2007
ANNOTATION: The judgment that sentencing 13- and 14-year-old children to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole is cruel and unusual punishment according to the Eighth Amendment is explained. Sections of this report include: executive summary; introduction; young children are different -- developmental and legal distinctions between adolescents and older teens and adults; why sentencing children to death in prison violates the Constitution; condemning children to die in prison violates international law; children in adult prisons -- targets for sexual and physical assault; victimizing the most vulnerable -- condemned children share childhoods of neglect and abuse; numbers and demographics of young children sentenced to death in prison; children of color are disproportionately sentenced to death in prison; children from poor families are unable to get legal help; non-homicides -- children sentenced to death in prison for crimes without fatalities; profiles of children condemned to die in prison; and conclusion.