Profile of Youth Affected Since the series of Supreme Court decisions upholding the use of the death penalty for juveniles, juvenile offenders have received the sentence of death fairly consistently, at least during the past 20 years. This accounts for less than 3 percent of the almost 6,900 total U.S. death sentences. In the 1990's, however, the annual rate returned to a consistent 2-3 percent of all sentences, despite the dramatic increase in juvenile arrests for murder that occurred between 1985 and 1995.
Many juveniles are well into adulthood by the time they face execution.
Seventy-three percent committed their crimes at age 17. Sixty-three percent are minorities. They are on death row in 16 different States. They have been on death row for periods ranging from a few months to more than 21 years. Little information exists to characterize juvenile capital offenders beyond bare demographics.