The death penalty

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Within the last couple of days, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the execution of juvenile killers is unconstitutional.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a ruling that marked a change in "national standards," a divided Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that the execution of juvenile killers is unconstitutional.

The 5-4 decision tosses out the death sentence of a Missouri man who was 17-years-old when he murdered a St. Louis area woman in 1993.

Writing for the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy found the punishment was unconstitutionally cruel under the Eighth Amendment.

"When a juvenile commits a heinous crime, the State can exact forfeiture of some of the most basic liberties, but the State cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity."

Supporting Kennedy were justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer.

The ruling means the death sentences of some 70 death row inmates who were under 18 at the time of their crimes will be invalid. States in the future will not be allowed to seek the death penalty for minors.

It got me to thinking that I had never seen this topic come up in this group. I am curious as to how you feel about the death penalty, both in regards to minors and adults. I know it can be an inflammattory topic but I have hope that it will remain civil here.

I'll start. I'm against the death penalty, no matter the age. The main reason I feel this way is because there have been too many cases where an innocent man has been sentenced to death only to be found innocent later. I don't have numbers on how many times this has occurred but, for me, once is too many times anyway. Years ago, I saw a film called "The Thin Blue Line" about a man in Texas who was very close to being executed, when the man who actually committed the crime (murdering a police officer) confessed. The innocent man, Randall Addams I believe, was just walking down a street one night and matched a description. Simple as that.

There have been other similar cases. The idea of being wrong as to whether someone is guilty or not, is bad enough. With the death penalty though, the error is not correctable. As long as the system isn't foolproof, I don't believe in taking the chance of being wrong.

So at the risk of opening a can of worms, what are your thoughts?