Roper v. Simmons

The Court abolished capital punishment for offenders who were under eighteen at the time of their crimes.

Overview

Christopher Simmons planned a murder at seventeen and was sentenced to death in Missouri. Justice Kennedy, for a 5-4 majority, held that executing juvenile offenders violates the Eighth Amendment under evolving standards of decency, citing the declining number of states permitting the practice and adolescent differences in judgment, impulsivity, and capacity for reform. Roper extended the earlier ban on executing persons with intellectual disability and completed the elimination of the juvenile death penalty nationwide, exemplifying the use of national consensus and international practice in constitutional interpretation.