WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- Reaction was varied to Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing executions for those who killed before age 18.
William Schultz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said the Supreme Court "repudiated the misguided idea that the United States can pledge to leave no child behind while simultaneously exiling children to
the death chamber."
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said, "While I firmly believe that adult crimes usually deserve adult punishment, the Supreme Court's decision brings clarity to an issue that has conflicted the hearts of many Americans. It is now the law of the land and will be followed as such."
"The decision acknowledges what we all know and what science has now confirmed: That the brains of adolescents function in fundamentally different ways than the brains of adults," said Dr. David Fassler, trustee at large of the American Psychiatric Association and a child and adolescent psychiatrist
