Introduction

The case of Roper v. Simmons (543 U.S. 551) presents a set of facts that test almost anyone’s intuitions favoring the idea that kids should be shielded from the worst punishments, punishments that are justifiably heaped on adults. More for the thrill of it than anything else, Christopher Simmons, together with two friends, broke into a randomly chosen home in the middle of the night, abducted Shirley Crook from her bedroom, bound her hands, legs, and head tightly with duct tape, and threw her off a bridge. She drowned in the waters below. Simmons later bragged about the murder, saying that he did it “because the bitch seen my face.” This repulsive remark was an evident lie, not that it matters, since there was ample evidence that Simmons had planned to kill Crook well before he and his friends even entered her home. Shirley Crook left behind a grief-stricken husband and daughter, both of whom testified at the sentencing phase of the trial to the havoc that the murder had wreaked on their lives. One and only one thing can be said on Simmons’ behalf, and it was duly noted by the attorneys in the case when addressing the jury that sentenced him to die: Christopher Simmons was 17 years old at the time of the crime. Eventually the Supreme Court of the United States reached the conclusion that this one fact was significant enough to warrant withholding from Simmons the worst that the state can do to a person: the court saved Simmons’ life, ruling that no one under 18 at the time of a crime could be executed for it, no matter how heinous the conduct....