Chipping Away At It

Like water on a rock, only faster.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.
The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling continues the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. The court in 1988 outlawed executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes.

What if these guys hadn’t killed themselves, submitting themselves to an infinitely harsher judge than exists on Earth?

What about this guy who is already up against a couple of life sentences in Virginia, but could have faced the death penalty after a third trial if a jury had deemed him guilty? (Not going to happen now.)

Do certain members of the SCOTUS think that such creatures can’t know right from wrong before that magical eighteenth birthday? I don’t know about you, but I knew well enough that shooting up the school or lying in wait to pick off various members of my community wasn’t a good thing to do long before I turned eighteen.

"The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

Interesting that some believe that a twelve-year-old “woman” has the "maturity" to abort a baby without her parents’ knowledge or consent (don't know the court's history on this), but when the victim changes, the perpetrator suddenly becomes a child, in spite of the fact that he/she has the "maturity" to plan and execute the mowing down of classmates or fellow citizens.

Drip, drip, drip.

UPDATE: And, right on cue, some poor little darling (allegedly) caps a bus driver in Tennessee.

CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn. (AP) - A school bus driver was shot to death as she drove her route Wednesday morning and a male student was taken into custody, authorities said. No students were hurt.[SNIP]

Mitchell Kern, a neighbor who graduated from high school last year, said the student who was taken into custody is 15 years old