Opinion ID: 1780791
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether foster's age at the time of the crime prohibits the imposition of the death penalty.

Text: ¶ 14. Foster next argues that his execution is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment because he was seventeen years old at the time he killed George Shelton. Foster argues that the same national consensus that caused the United States Supreme Court to ban the execution of the mentally retarded in Atkins also exists in opposition to execution of those who committed their crimes as juveniles, and this Court should recognize such a prohibition at this time. This Court finds that the United States Supreme Court has prohibited the execution of those who committed their crimes at age fifteen in Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815, 108 S.Ct. 2687, 101 L.Ed.2d 702 (1988), but declined in Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361, 109 S.Ct. 2969, 106 L.Ed.2d 306 (1989), to do so for those who committed their crimes at age sixteen or seventeen. The United States Supreme Court recently declined to grant relief on this issue. See In re Stanford, ___ U.S. ___, 123 S.Ct. 472, 154 L.Ed.2d 364, rehearing denied, ___ U.S. ___, 123 S.Ct. 715, 154 L.Ed.2d 649 (2002). This issue is without merit.