Executing Female Juveniles
![handle is hein.journals/conlr22 and id is 13 raw text is: EXECUTING FEMALE JUVENILES*
Victor L. Streib** and Lynn Sametz***
[T]he fatal, the tremendous sentence
which puts a period to the life of one,
who had never learned to live.
-Reverend H. Channing
The history and evolution of capital punishment in the Unied
States has been carefully documented by scholars2 and chronicled by
* This article is based in large part on the authors' paper, Capital Punishment of Female
Juveniles, presented in Chicago, Illinois, at the 1988 Annual Meeting of the American Society of
Criminology (Nov. 10, 1988) (available from the authors).
Please note: An asterisk after a source indicates that the Connecticut Law Review was unable
to check the source.
** Professor of Law, Cleveland State University. B.S., Auburn University, J.D., Indiana Uni-
versity. Co-counsel for the juvenile in two juvenile death penalty cases: Thompson v. Oklahoma,
108 S. Ct. 2687 (1988), and Cooper v. State, 540 N.E.2d 1216 (Ind. 1989).
*** Research Associate, Federation for Community Planning, Cleveland, Ohio. B.A., Johns
Hopkins University; M.A., University of Connecticut; Ph.D., Indiana University.
1. H. CHANNING, GOD ADMONISHING His PEOPLE OF THEIR DUTY, AS PARENTS AND MASTERS
5 (1786) (pamphlet published in New London, Connecticut, by T. Green). Such was the charac-
terization of one particularly famous juvenile female death sentence. The speaker was the Rever-
end Henry Channing from Yale College. The sermon, preached at New London, December 20th.
1786, was occasioned by the execution of Hannah Ocuish, aged 12 years and 9 months, for the
murder of Eunice Bolles, aged 6 years and 6 months. For more information about the Ocuish case,
see infra notes 65-98 and accompanying text.
2. See, e.g., AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: THE DEATH PENALTY
(1987); H. BEDAU, DEATH IS DIFFERENT: STUDIES IN THE MORALITY, LAW. AND POLITICS OF
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (1987); R. BERGER, DEATH PENALTIES THE SUPREME COURT'S OBSTACLE
COURSE (1982); W. BERNS, FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: CRIME AND THE MORALITY OF THE
DEATH PENALTY (1979); C. BLACK, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: THE INEVITABILITY OF CAPRICE AND
MISTAKE (2d ed. 1981); NV. BOWERS, LEGAL HOMICIDE: DEATH As PUNISHMENT IN AM.iERICA.
1864-1982 (1984); R. BYE, CAPITAL PUNISHIENT IN THE UNITED STATES (1919); CAPITAL PUN-
ISHMENT (T. Sellin ed. 1967); M. MELTSNER, CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: THE SUPREME COURT AND
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (1973); B. PRETrYMAN, JR., DEATH AND THE SUPREME COURT (1961); G.
SCOTT, THE HISTORY 0F CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (1950); T. SELLIN, THE PENALTY OF DEATH
(1980); N. TEETERS & J. HEDBLOM, ... . HANG BY THE NECK. . .: THE LEGAL USE OF SCAF-
FOLD AND NOOSE. GIBBET, STAKE, AND FIRING SQUAD FROM COLONIAL TIMES TO THE PRESENT
(1967); THE DEATH PENALTY IN AMERICA (H. Bedau ed. 1982); NV. WHITE, THE DEATH PENALTY
IN THE EIGHTIES: AN EXAMINATION OF THE MODERN SYSTEM OF CAPITAL PUNISH4ENT (1987).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/conlr22&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Executing Female Juveniles
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