BY AN overwhelming 32-7majority, Virginia's representatives in Richmond passed a bill less than two weeks ago making ours the first state to ban cell phone use in cars for drivers under 18. Sen. William C. Mims, R-Loudoun, who proposed the bill, cited a study by the National Institutes of Health that found the region of the brain that restrains risky behaviors isn't fully developed until age of 25. The pediatric psychiatrist that led that NIH study explained that the research suggested that adolescence could be "a dangerous time."
Add talking on a cell phone while driving, then, to the list of things that underage Virginians cannot do: legally purchase alcohol, cigarettes or pornography, join the military or vote for the state legislature. Yet, by its negligence that same week, the legislature decided that being sentenced to death doesn't have a place on that list. Our legislators in Richmond agreed that while teenage brains were too underdeveloped to multitask, those brains and bodies were developed enough to execute.
On Jan. 26, the Virginia Senate Courts of Justice Committee considering, a bill to ban the death penalty for juveniles, sent the issue to the Virginia State Crime Commission for a year of study, dismissing it from consideration in this legislative period. While supporters of that bill, including its author, Sen. Patricia Ticer, D-Alexandria, are optimistic about the scrutiny the practice will receive from the commission, there is obviously a sense of disappointment that the embarrassing practice of executing criminals under the age of 18 will remain legal in the Commonwealth for at least another year. As the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty when it decides Roper v. Simmons later in its session, it's possible that the end to the practice will come not from responsible and humane action in Richmond, but by judicial fiat.
By now, the moral case against the juvenile death penalty is beside the point. The shame of being the second leading state (behind only Texas) in the execution of juveniles could certainly stand as plenty of reason alone. That shame should only be compounded by the insult of the company America not only keeps, but leads. We are the only member of the United Nations that has not ratified the body's Treaty on the Rights of the Child, and our country's track record of 17 juveniles sentenced to death in the past decade and a half (five of which are in Virginia) makes us the leader of the pack of the seven nations that still practice the juvenile death penalty. Those seven nations, for the record, include such human rights superstars as the Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Congo.
Furthermore, it's simply not fiscally pragmatic for a state that cannot afford sustained high quality education for its juveniles to continue to sentence them to death. Duke University analyzed the cost of death penalty cases in our neighbor to the south and discovered that the price of adjudicating a capital case was "at least an extra $2.6 million per execution compared to what the taxpayers would have spent if defendants were tried without the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison."
If nothing else, the fact that the juvenile death penalty remains on the books in Virginia is downright undemocratic, as the overwhelming majority of Americans do not support it. According to a Gallup poll done in May of 2002, 72 percent of Americans support capital punishment, but only 26 percent support it for juveniles convicted of murder.
There is absolutely no excuse and no justification for Richmond to be dragging its feet or stalling on this issue. The immorality of executing an individual deemed incapable of operating a cell phone while driving doesn't even have to be part of the picture; the juvenile death penalty is bad for Virginia on so many other grounds.Sen. Mims says that the ban on underage cell phone use is necessary because teenagers can't multitask; the hypocrisy of the legislature in passing that bill while ignoring the juvenile death penalty proves that our elected officials can't either.
Katie Cristol's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at kcristol@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 3 days agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | 4 days agoAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
YOUNIS: Why every U.Va. student should say yes to English
By Ayat Younis | January 9, 2025Every student at the University, regardless of their primary field of study, can professionally and academically benefit from engaging with the English department.
