Russ Feingold: “Mr. President I want to speak today on the Supreme Court's recent decision to review whether the execution of child…”

“Mr. President I want to speak today on the Supreme Court's recent decision to review whether the execution of child offenders--those under 18 at the time the crime was committed--is constitutional. The Court will soon hear the case of Christopher Simmons, a Missouri man who was sentenced to die for a crime he committed at the age of 17. The case is called Roper v. Simmons. In the past few years, our Nation has taken important strides toward fairness and justice in the administration of the death penalty. In 2000, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan took the courageous step of halting executions in his State pending a top-to-bottom study of the use of capital punishment in Illinois. Following an exhaustive review of his State's system, Gov. Ryan commuted the death sentences of all death row inmates in Illinois in December 2002. Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening suspended executions in his State in the face of glaring racial and geographic disparities in the Maryland death penalty system. Current Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich has since lifted the State's moratorium, but an execution has not taken place in Maryland since 1998. A number of State legislatures have inched closer and closer to abolishing the death penalty or instituting moratoria in their jurisdictions. And in 2002, in a significant turning point for our Nation, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the execution of the mentally retarded.”