Missouri juvenile death penalty sent to Supreme Court

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State Attorney General Jay Nixon has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a recent ruling by Missouri's highest court that declared the death penalty unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.

In a 4-3 decision along partisan lines issued in August, the Missouri Supreme Court said imposing capital sentences on offenders who were under 18 when they committed their crimes violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."

However, the federal high court found otherwise in the 1989 case Stanford v. Kentucky and hasn't overturned that precedent.

In his petition seeking federal review of the case, Nixon said the Missouri court's "novel interpretation" of the issue in reaching a decision that contradicts precedent cannot be allowed to stand.

"Turning over the responsibility for defining 'cruel and unusual punishment' to the lower courts would wreak havoc and sow inequity throughout the nation," according to the state's petition.

The U.S. Supreme Court, which grants only a small percentage of requests for review, will decide at a later date whether to take the case.

Christopher Simmons was 17 when he murdered Shirley Crook of Jefferson County in September 1993. A Cape Girardeau jury found him guilty of first degree murder in 1994 and recommended the death sentence, which the trial judge imposed.

With its August ruling, the state Supreme Court reduced his sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Although they acknowledged the Stanford precedent, the four judges appointed to the Missouri court by Democratic governors said "standards of decency" had evolved to the point that the federal court would rule differently if deciding the issue today.

The Missouri court's three Republican appointees said the majority opinion was presumptuous as only the U.S. Supreme Court can overturn one of its decisions.

Jennifer Herndon of St. Louis, Simmons' attorney, predicted the case would yield a landmark decision should the court opt to hear it. Although the court has recently declined to take similar cases, she said some of those refusals have come amid dissent among the judges, which could indicate the court is interested in revisiting the issue.

"I think they are looking for the right case to come along, and this might be it," Herndon said. "Given their recent, consistent denial on this issue, it is hard to say."

However, Simmons' case stands out since the finding contradicts established precedent. In the recent cases the court has passed on, including one from Texas last week, lower courts had upheld such capital punishment for underage offenders.

In reaching its decision, the Missouri judges took the reasoning the federal high court used last year in finding capital punishment unconstitutional for mentally retarded defendants and applied it to juveniles.

Nixon, a Democrat, said other state and federal courts have refused to link the two issues, with Missouri's break from the pack blurring the constitutional clarity provided by the Stanford decision. He urged the high court to grant his petition "and remove the analytical debris left by the Missouri court's attack."

At the time of the Simmons ruling, Antonio Richardson was the only other inmate on Missouri's death row who was underage when he committed his crime. However, the state court reduced his sentence to life imprisonment Tuesday on unrelated grounds.

Of the 38 states that allow capital punishment, Missouri is one of 17 with a law setting 16 as the minimum age to be eligible for the death penalty. Another five states allow such sentences for 17-year-olds.

If the Missouri court's decision stands, prosecutors in the state would be unable to seek the death penalty in future cases involving juveniles.

Simmons, now 27, is incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center.

The case is Donald P. Roper, Potosi Correctional Center superintendent, v. Christopher Simmons.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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