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Monday, January 27, 2003

On a more serious matter, SCOTUS declines to hear juvenile death penalty case.

The Supreme Court has allowed the death penalty to be imposed on killers who were 16 or 17 at the time of their crimes. Lawyers for Oklahoma inmate Scott Allen Hain said the minimum age should be raised to 18.

"While they appear to be fully-grown physically and may seem to be functioning as adults, their judgment and impulse-control are simply not that of adults," attorney Steven Presson told justices in filings.

Hain was 17 when he and an older friend abducted and killed a young couple in 1987. They locked the victims in their car trunk and set it afire.

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