Unfortunately a child can be tried in criminal court as an adult and suffer the same sentence as an adult, including execution. There have been several children on death row. The United States has more children on death row than any other country.

According to the 2002 Amnesty International report, Children and the Death Penalty: Executions worldwide since 1990:

The country which has carried out more documented executions of child offenders than any other since 1990 is the USA.

In 1988 and 1989 the US Supreme Court ruled that the execution of people who were under 16 at the time of the crime was contrary to the US Constitution but that the execution of people aged 16 or 17 at the time of the crime was not.

Fifteen US states were holding a total of 82 child offenders on death row as of August 2002. Eighteen executions of child offenders have been carried out in six states since 1990. One of those executed was 16 at the time of the offence; the others were all 17. Eleven of the executions were in Texas…

The background of most of the child offenders executed since 1990 was one of serious emotional or material deprivation. Many were regular users of drugs or alcohol with lower than average intelligence. Some had organic brain damage. Some had poor or inexperienced legal counsel. Highly relevant information was withheld at their trials due to incompetence or inexperience on the part of their lawyers.

The 18 of the 82 children on death row that were executed between 1990 and 2002 are detailed in the report linked above.

We take the same position as Pope John-Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI: While the death penalty may be exacted by the State, the conditions for the State must be such that there is no other choice to protect society. There are no First World countries who meet those condition as they have the means to protect society through maximum security prisons.

It is a telling fact that the only First World countries that still kill its prisoners is the United States and Japan.

International law and conventions all condemn the sentence of execution for children:

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): “Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age. . .” (Article 6(5))

Convention on the Rights of the Child: “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age. . .” (Article 37(a))

American Convention on Human Rights: “Capital punishment shall not be imposed upon persons who, at the time the crime was committed, were under 18 years of age. . .” (Article 4(5))

We are in agreement with the Convention on the Rights of the Child that children convicted of a crime should not receive the death penalty nor life in prison without parole.

While child criminals must pay for their crimes, and the State has an obligation to protect its citizens, we believe that it is cruel and unusual punishment to place a child in adult prison nor matter what the crime. Prison is brutal even to a seasoned criminal. For children is it no less than torture.

The United States does not value its children. Two examples include that fact that in 1973, child sacrifice (abortion) became official policy of the U.S. A second fact is that we have a culture in which children are considered a burden. President Obama said that if his daughter got pregnant he would not wish her to be “punished” by having a baby.

Several Bishops, and most recently the Pope has warned America about the its declining culture and threat to religious freedom.

I need your answer for my questions. We all know that if anyone commit a crime, he/she should pay for it. But what if the criminal is teen or underage, will they pay for it and be send to Death Rows?