This is the 66th issue of this periodic report, having first been launched on June 15, 1984. On that date, the death penalty for juvenile offenders was an obscure issue in law as well as in political and social arenas. These reports have been with us (1) through the intense litigation of the late 1980s, (2) through our society's near hysteria about violent juvenile crime in the 1990s, (3) into the era of the international pressure on the United States to abandon this practice, and (4) now into a revitalized movement to finally end this practice. The solitary goal of these reports is to collect in one place the best available data and information on the death penalty for juvenile offenders (defined as those under age 18 at the time of their crimes). .
These reports sketch the characteristics of the juvenile offenders and their crimes who have been sentenced to death, who have been executed, and who are currently under death sentences. Nonetheless, these reports almost invariably under-report the number of death-sentenced juvenile offenders due to difficulty in obtaining accurate data. One other source of confusion and occasional inaccuracy is the difference between being legally under a sentence of death and being physically housed on a state's death row. This report chronicles the exact date of imposition and reversal or removal of the death sentence by a court or executive officer. Therefore, the list of persons currently under juvenile death sentences excludes those for whom the sentence has been legally reversed or removed, even if the case is still being reviewed or reconsidered. However, it is not uncommon for such a person to continue to be housed on the prison's death row even though no longer legally under a death sentence. This list also includes those persons under legal death sentences who are housed temporarily in local jails or prisons rather than the jurisdiction' death row prison.