Nevada considering ban on executing minors

A bill banning execution of people younger the age of 18 convicted of capital crimes was introduced Thursday in the Nevada Assembly.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, is sponsoring AB118, a proposal she also pushed in the 2001 legislative session but was unable to get out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

She's hoping for better success the second time around.

"It just says we will not execute young men and women under the age of 18," Giunchigliani said. "Instead, they would be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole."

Key to the argument, Giunchigliani said, is that people younger than 18 are growing physically and mentally, and their capacity to make decisions is not fully developed.

The proposal is not an effort to excuse their crimes, she said.

"Life without the possibility of parole is a worse sentence in my mind," the assemblywoman said.

Courts currently can impose the death penalty on anyone who was 16 years old when they committed the crime.

There is now one man on Nevada's death row who was convicted as a juvenile. Michael Domingues was 16 in 1993 when he killed Arjin Pechpho, 24, and her 4-year-old son, Jonathan Smith, at their home in Las Vegas. Domingues lived next door.

The state Supreme Court rejected his appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review his claim that executing those younger than 18 violates an international treaty.

Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said he is against the proposal. He said prosecutors and the courts have enough discretion to decide who the state should execute.

"To get the death penalty in this state you have to do a pretty heinous crime. People at age 16 are competent enough to drive cars and do a lot of other things like adults, and I guess that I have concerns that age is the only factor," Hettrick said.

"We get too many things here done on absolutes and the same cookie-cutter size fits all," he said.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, agreed with Giunchigliani the measure has a better chance this year. Leslie chaired an interim subcommittee that studied the death penalty and came one vote short of officially recommending the bill.

"I've found a great willingness to be open on this issue," Leslie said.

She also noted major reforms often take time and that the death penalty was rarely discussed during her first term in office in 1999.

Leslie agreed the development issue would play a key role in the argument.

"There's a reason we have a juvenile justice system. It's because juveniles aren't adults," she said.