Ban sought on death penalty for those under 18

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, led a parade of religious, social and legal advocates before the Assembly Judiciary Committee Friday calling on lawmakers to ban capital punishment for anyone under age 18.

But prosecutors asked the committee to leave capital punishment for those as young as 16 as an option for district attorneys.

Ben Graham, representing the Nevada District Attorneys Association, said after the hearing the possibility of a death penalty is a bargaining tool for prosecutors.

"A significant one," he said.

"I think that's the whole point," Giunchigliani said. "It's not a deterrent. It's not proper public policy. They use it as an anvil over someone's head in plea bargaining."

She told the committee children under age 18 know the difference between right and wrong and don't deserve an exemption from criminal sanctions.

But she, psychologists, public defenders and others said there is growing clinical evidence teens don't have an adult's ability to control impulses, understand the consequences of their actions and separate emotions from reason.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who co-sponsored AB6, said lawmakers last session barred execution of the retarded and mentally impaired.

"Juvenile brains are not fully developed," she said. Leslie said the proposal isn't an attempt to justify horrible crimes committed by some juveniles.

She said she understands the horror of those crimes because there was a murder in her family last year. She said even that didn't change her mind on the issue because executing people is wrong.

While the district attorney's association decried anti-death penalty arguments as "manipulative emotional appeals ignoring the facts," Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Bruce Hahn used a lurid description of a murder case he prosecuted to try to convince lawmakers not to pass the legislation.

He said there is a small percentage of cases where the people of Nevada want to have the right to order a teen executed and asked lawmakers to leave district attorneys that option for the most horrific crimes by juveniles.

Committee Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, challenged Hahn, asking if it were true that Washoe District Attorney Dick Gammick sought or at least threatened the death penalty in a majority of murder cases. Hahn said such decisions were made after careful review.

Judy Phoenix, a Reno psychologist who represents the Nevada State Psychological Association, said there is growing clinical evidence teenage brains don't work the same as an adult's brain, that their brains are physically immature and lack emotional control.

"One minute they're the epitome of reason, the next like a 2-year-old only bigger," she said. "They do not reason and make logical decisions like an adult."

She said teens are also much more susceptible to peer influence and don't see risks the same as adults.

Mary Berkheiser, a professor who directs the juvenile justice clinic at UNLV's Boyd Law School, said the teens she has helped defend get into trouble "because they don't think ahead."

"They routinely say to police 'the gun just went off' and they have no idea what happened or why they did what they did."

UNR Professor Richard Siegel, who is finishing a book on the death penalty, and Nancy Hart of Amnesty International told the committee 31 states have banned executions of those under 18 along with almost every country. Federal public defender Michael Pescetta said only the U.S. and Iran execute juveniles and that China, which executes about 3,000 criminals a year, doesn't put those under age 18 to death.

Graham presented the committee with a paper that also argues the Nevada Legislature doesn't need to act because the U.S. Supreme Court, following last year's decision to bar executing the retarded, will probably do the same for teens this year. Two cases are now before the court.

The committee will hold a workshop and vote on the bill at a later date.