Scott Hain
Scott Allen Hain (June 2, 1970 – April 3, 2003) was the last person executed in the United States for crimes committed as a juvenile. Hain was executed by Oklahoma for a double murder–kidnapping he committed when he was 17 years old. Crime. Hain was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As a teenager, he accumulated juvenile convictions for trespassing, theft, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. On October 6, 1987, Hain and Robert Lambert carjacked an automobile in Tulsa that was occupied by Michael Houghton (December 9, 1959 - October 6, 1987) and Laura Sanders (January 8, 1965 - October  6, 1987). Hain and Lambert eventually stopped the car, robbed Houghton and Sanders, and placed them in the trunk of the car. Hain set fire to the car, which resulted in Houghton and Sanders' deaths. Hain was 17 years old at the time of the murders. Court proceedings and executions. Hain and Lambert were arrested on October 9, 1987. At trial in 1988, they were both convicted of capital felony murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection. In 1994, an appeals court determined that because the jury had not been told of the possibility of a life sentence without  any chance of parole, Hain was entitled to a new sentencing hearing. At the re-sentencing hearing, the new jury again sentenced Hain to death for the murders. All of Hain's subsequent appeals were eventually dismissed, and in February 2002 the United States Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal, which was based on arguments of unconstitutionality executing juvenile offenders. In February 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a stay of execution that had been put in place by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Hain was executed by lethal injection at the age of 32. He was  the 60th person executed by Oklahoma since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated by the United States Supreme Court. Hain's partner, Lambert, who had been convicted and sentenced in 1994, was retried, convicted and sentenced again to death. In 2005, however, Lambert's case went to the Oklahoma State Court of Criminal Appeals, where the court ruled him "mentally retarded". According to news reports, Lambert will serve a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. Statistics. As a result of the 1976 Supreme Court decision in "Gregg v. Georgia", capital punishment was allowed to resume in  the United States. With his execution, Hain became: Hain was the last person executed in the United States for crimes committed as a minor, prior to the 2005 "Roper v. Simmons" case in which the United States Supreme Court outlawed such executions. End of juvenile offender executions in the United States. In March 2005, less than two years after Hain's execution, the United States Supreme Court held in the 5–4 decision of "Roper v. Simmons" that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution was violated when offenders were executed for crimes committed prior to the age of 18 . If "Roper v. Simmons" had been decided prior to Hain's execution, Hain could not have been legally executed.