'Juveniles cannot be executed'
23/06/2005 14:01  - (SA)  

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Austin - Responding to the United States Supreme Court's ruling that juveniles cannot be executed, Texas governor Rick Perry commuted 28 death sentences to life in prison for inmates who were under 18 when they committed capital murder.

The Supreme Court forced the commutations with its March ruling that executing juveniles violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the US constitution.

Texas - the nation's most active death penalty state - was one of 18 states that allowed the practice.

Perry's order issued on Wednesday started the process of moving the inmates off death row.

Perry said: "While these individuals were convicted by juries of brutal murders and sentenced to die for their heinous crimes, I have no choice but to commute these sentences to life in prison as a result of the Supreme Court ruling."

Nine convicted killers had been put to death in Texas so far this year.

- SAPA

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