Ruling in Roper v. Simmons, on March 1, 2005, the majority opinion declared, “The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.”
The question presented was:
“[W]hether it is permissible under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States to execute a juvenile offender who was older than 15 but younger than 18 when he committed a capital crime.”
The opinion
Read the full rulingPDF · 317.06 KBPublished by the Library of Congress.
Oral argument
Listen at OyezOffsiteThe Court's own audio archive begins with the 2010 term, so this argument is held by Oyez rather than by supremecourt.gov.
