Death-Penalty Opponents Cite Teens’ Immature Brains
Juvenile offenders should not be executed for their crimes, because they are not fully able to control their impulses and critically appraise their actions, panelists at an Amnesty International press conference said in September.
The human rights group convened a panel to discuss findings from a report titled “Indecent and Internationally Illegal: The Death Penalty Against Child Offenders.” The report, issued September 25, highlighted arguments presented in the recent Supreme Court decision, Atkins v. Virginia, which stated that execution of death row prisoners with mental retardation violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment (Psychiatric News, July 19).
He emphasized, “Much the same can be said of adolescents. It is our fervent hope that the Supreme Court will see the wisdom in this parallel and conclude that the use of capital punishment for juveniles is also unconstitutional.”
“Without the benefit of neuroscientific advice,” Goldberg pointed out, “society deductively established that [the age of 18] is the age that we have the ability to behave in a mature way.” He gave as evidence laws that allow people to vote, marry, serve in the military, smoke, and in some states drink alcohol.
Acknowledging Gray Areas
The legal community, Goldberg said, is beginning to acknowledge the gray areas between right and wrong. Juveniles may well know the difference between right and wrong; however, their ability to control impulses may not be fully developed, so they may repetitively engage in bad behavior. “This distinction was noted in the Atkins decision with those who are mentally retarded,” Goldberg said.
Preliminary research supports Goldberg’s statement about impulse control, said Lois Flaherty, M.D., chair of APA’s Council on Children, Adolescents, and Their Families. Studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have pointed to decreased frontal lobe response in youth aged 11 to 17, she said.
One study conducted by Elizabeth Sowell, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of California at Los Angeles showed that gray matter decreased between adolescence and young adulthood in several parts of the brain, notably the frontal cortex. The authors highlighted the parallel between the structural changes they observed and the maturation of cognitive functions.
Reacting Without Thinking
In addition, researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., showed teenagers a number of pictures with facial expressions, and the teens misidentified these expressions more often than adults did. Flaherty said that the researchers hypothesized that the teens relied on the parts of their brains that control the emotions—the amygdala—when looking at the facial expressions. “The teenagers were reacting [to the facial expressions] almost instinctively—without thinking,” said Flaherty.
Young people will often give the “correct” answer when asked about how they should behave under certain circumstances, Flaherty noted, but act differently when actually faced with the circumstances. “A teen who tends to fight with his peers will correctly say that he should walk away from the situation when confronted, but he doesn’t. He is reacting on a gut level.” This may be due to the fact that the young person is responding to signals from his or her amygdala rather than the frontal lobes, Flaherty said.
She agreed with Shulz that “if a person is less able to make rational decisions, there should be diminished culpability for behavior.”
Trauma or childhood abuse can also predispose a young person to violent behavior, Flaherty said. When a child suffers repeated physical or sexual abuse, the amygdala may be overstimulated and continue to function in overdrive long after the trauma or abuse has occurred.
In June 2001 APA issued a position statement opposing execution of juveniles, stating that victims of childhood abuse or neglect are overrepresented among incarcerated juveniles and those on death row. Studies of these juveniles show increased rates of “mental disorders, serious brain injuries, substance abuse, and learning disabilities, which may predispose [the juveniles] to aggressive or violent behaviors.”
At the press conference, Schulz gave an example of childhood abuse and its consequences. Glen McGinnis was just 17 when he was convicted of shooting a laundry attendant and was executed in Texas two years ago.
As a child, McGinnis was beaten with an electrical cord and a baseball bat, and his stomach burned with sausage grease. His stepfather raped him. His mother worked out of their apartment as a prostitute and had an addiction to crack cocaine.
“Tell me that Glen McGinnis wasn’t impaired by his severe abuse,” said Schulz. “Tell me that his vicious upbringing ought not to have diminished his personal culpability.”
The United States has executed 18 juveniles since 1990, according to the Amnesty International report.
Also present at the press conference were Scott Winters, an actor who portrays death-row inmate Cyril O’Reily on the HBO show “Oz,” and Ricardo Villalobos, an advocate with Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. Villalobos lost five of his family members to murder. ▪
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Published online: 15 November 2002
Published in print: November 15, 2002
Notes
In the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision to outlaw executions of people with mental retardation, new cries for justice are arising from those who would protect juveniles from the possibility of execution.
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