Equal Justice Initiative

PrintE-Mail

Share

Dominic Culpepper has been sentenced to imprisonment until death in Florida for a crime committed at age 14. View Slideshow

In the United States, dozens of 13- and 14-year-old children have been sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole after being prosecuted as adults. While the United States Supreme Court recently declared that death by execution is unconstitutional for juveniles, young children continue to be sentenced to die in prison with very little scrutiny or review. EJI has documented 73 cases where children 14 years of age or younger have been condemned to death in prison. Almost all of these kids currently lack legal representation and in most of these cases the propriety and constitutionality of their extreme sentences has never been reviewed.

Most of the sentences imposed on these children were mandatory: the court could not give any consideration to the child’s age or life history. Some of the crimes charged against these children do not involve homicide or even injury. Many of these children were convicted for offenses where older teenagers or adults were involved and primarily responsible for the crime. Nearly two-thirds of these adolescents are children of color.

EJI has launched a litigation campaign to challenge death in prison sentences imposed on young children. We are also working to increase public awareness in order to reform policies that reflect a lack of perspective and hope for young children.

News

EJI Seeks Relief for Disabled Pennsylvania Child Sentenced to Die in Prison

May 14, 2012

Trina Garnett

In 1977, a 14-year-old mentally disabled girl was charged with second-degree murder after setting a fire that tragically killed two people in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was tried in adult court and sentenced to die in prison. EJI is now challenging her sentence and seeking relief for Trina Garnett, whose story is profiled in this month's issue of The Nation.

13-Year-Old Mississippi Child Sentenced to Die in Prison Has Been Resentenced to Reduced Prison Term

April 24, 2012

Demarious Banyard, left, in 2006

Demarious Banyard was 13 when he was arrested and ultimately sentenced to die in prison. He was accused of being involved in a robbery-murder with an older man in a public housing project in Jackson, Mississippi. EJI won a new trial for him in 2010. Last week he was resentenced and should be released in the next several years.

EJI Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Strike Down Death-in-Prison Sentences for Children

March 30, 2012

EJI legal team outside Supreme Court

EJI's Bryan Stevenson argued in two cases at the United States Supreme Court on March 20, 2012, that the life imprisonment without parole sentences imposed on Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson constitute cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Constitution.