Too Young
A teen inmate sits in her room at a maximum-security juvenile facility in Illinois. As a result of the 2005 Roper v. Simmons decision (Borra, 2005), defendants being tried for crimes committed before age 18 are no longer candidates for the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court arrived at this decision after carefully weighing evidence submitted by the American Psychological Association (APA) and others, which suggests that the juvenile mind is still developing and vulnerable to impulsivity and poor decision making (APA, 2013c).

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