Roper v. Simmons
United States Supreme Court
543 U.S. 551 (2005)
Christopher Simmons (defendant) was sentenced to death for a murder he committed at age seventeen. In Stanford v. Kentucky (1989), the Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds. Simmons later argued in Missouri courts that a new national consensus, informed by international law and foreign practice, had emerged against executing juveniles; the Missouri Supreme Court agreed and set aside his death sentence, and the state (plaintiff, on appeal as Roper) sought review in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Whether an individual who committed capital murder between the ages of fifteen and eighteen can be sentenced to death, and whether international law and foreign practice may be considered in interpreting the Eighth Amendment.