Why a schoolboy who made a shooting in Santa Fe is not facing the death penalty

A suspect in school shooting in Santa Fe may be considered an adult in the courts of the State of Texas, but cannot be sentenced to death, according to the 2005 Supreme Court ruling.

Photo: Facebook Dimitrios Pagourtzis

According to a Marshall study, for 100 years, Texas considered 17-year suspects as adults if they committed crimes. And Dimitrios Pagurtsis was charged with murdering an 10 man as an adult.

But the decision of the Supreme Court 2005 of the year, which prohibits the execution of criminals younger than 18 years, and the decision of 2012 on minors, means that in 40 years Pagurtzis can apply for parole.

“The courts have appealed to the idea that criminals 17 and younger do not have the cognitive development to tell right from wrong,” said Michael Radelet, a sociology professor at Boulder who has studied more than 75 death penalty cases. “Cases like these, especially those that are violent and mysterious, make some people think they are more deserving of the death penalty, but the decision comes down to the development of the teenage brain.”

Pagurtzis wrote down plans for a terrible attack in his diary and in the home computer before entering Santa Fe High School in Texas, where, as a student, killed a 10 man and injured 13, prosecutors noted.

Photo: Twitter HCSOTexas

Since 1642, at least 366 juvenile offenders have been executed in the United States, according to research by Victor Streib, an expert on the death penalty. A total of 22 of them occurred between 1973 and 2005—of which two-thirds were reported in Texas.

In 2005, the then Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, commuted 28 death sentences to juvenile offenders following a Supreme Court decision. He also signed a law that excluded the possibility of parole, which the Supreme Court ruled in 2012.

From 1973 to 2005, the 226 death sentences in juvenile cases only resulted in 22. The last death penalty of a minor was registered in Oklahoma in 2003, according to Streib's research.

Texas is one of the 31 states where there is a death penalty, but there are less and less people resorting to it. Since 1976, 551 has been executed on the state in the state, which is a little over a third of the executions throughout the country.

According to the non-profit information center for criminal punishment, currently 243 is in the death row.

Read also on ForumDaily:

What is known about the shooter from Santa Fe who killed a man at school 10

Santa Fe shooting victims: who are they

Chronology of violence: how and where they shot at American schools in 2018

Activists in the USA: what the Americans fought for and what came of it

Passion for Arms: Why the US Can't Stop Frequent Mass Executions

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.