Supreme Court Ends Juvenile Death Penalty

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Tuesday that executing juvenile offenders is not constitutional, a dramatic reversal of precedent that laid bare angry divisions among justices. Immediately after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced the long-awaited ruling in Roper v. Simmons, Justice Antonin Scalia read from one of the most vituperative dissents in years. Scalia also upbraided the majority for selectively invoking an international consensus against executing juveniles while ignoring it in other contexts.

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