Court Opinion

ID: 9732250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:13:05.830772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:25.431806
License: Public Domain

PIVARNIK, Justice,
concurring in result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority in the disposition of this case. In Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988), 487 U.S. ---, 108 S.Ct. 2687, 101 L.Ed.2d 702, five Justices of the United States Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the execution of an offender under cireum-stances present in the instant case.
Four of the Justices held outright that a death sentence imposed on a person who was under sixteen (16) years of age at the time of the commission of the crime was unconstitutional as against the Eighth Amendment. The fifth Justice, Sandra *1222Day O'Connor, found that it was unconstitutional to execute one under sixteen (16) years under the authority of a capital punishment statute that specifies no minimum age at which the commission of a capital crime can lead to the offender's execution. At the time this crime was committed, Paula Cooper was fifteen (15) years of age. Our Indiana death penalty statute under which she was sentenced did not provide at the time she committed the crime a minimum age at which the death penalty could be imposed. -
Clearly, pursuant to the holding of a majority of the United States Supreme Court, it would be unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on Paula Cooper and we are guided by their holding.
For this reason, I coneur in the result reached by the majority.