Too young to die? There are 72 juvenile offenders on death row. The Supreme Court is set to decide whether executing them amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

• Author: Liptak, Adam
• Position: National - Cover Story

Last August, Robert Acuna, a high school student from Baytown, Tex., became the newest teenager on death row. Acuna was convicted of killing two elderly neighbors, James and Joyce Carroll, when he was 17, shooting them "execution style," as prosecutors described it, and stealing their car. At sentencing, when jurors weighed his crime against factors that might call for leniency, Acuna's youth should have counted in his favor.

Instead, his brooding and volatile adolescent demeanor may have hurt him more than it helped, and a Houston jury sentenced him to die. Renee Magee, who prosecuted Acuna, now 18, says his behavior at the trial alienated the jury. "He was very nonchalant," Magee says. "He laughed at inappropriate things. He still didn't quite get the magnitude of everything he did."

Acuna is the latest person to receive a death sentence for a crime committed before age 18. He could be the last.

In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. If the High Court prohibits the execution of 16- and 17-year-old offenders in a case involving Christopher Simmons of Missouri, the lives of Acuna and 71 other juvenile offenders on death row in 12 states will be spared.

A central issue before the Court, which is expected to rule on this case in the next few months, is whether the plummeting number of such death sentences (there were just two last year) lends weight to the argument that putting youths on death row amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited by the Constitution.

Supporters of the juvenile death penalty argue that the small number proves the system works and that juries are making discerning choices on whom to sentence to death, taking due account of the defendants' youth.

The Supreme Court in 1988 banned the execution of those under 16 at the time of their crimes. During arguments last fall on whether to move that categorical line to 18, Justice Antonin Scalia said the drop in juvenile death sentences was proof that juries could be trusted to sort through and weigh evidence about defendants' youth and culpability. "It doesn't surprise me that the death penalty for 16- to 18-year-olds is rarely imposed," Scalia said. "I would expect it would be. But it's a question of whether you leave it to the jury to evaluate the person's youth and take that into account or whether you adopt a hard rule."

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Juries in capital cases involving juvenile offenders...