Supreme Court of the United States
Thompson v. Oklahoma
June 29, 1988487 U.S. 815
Summary
The Court vacated the death sentence imposed on a defendant who was 15 when he committed murder and remanded for an order vacating that sentence. The controlling rationale was that, in the unusual circumstances presented, Oklahoma could not execute a person under 16 under a capital statute that specified no minimum execution age. The plurality additionally concluded that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments categorically prohibit executing offenders who were under 16 at the time of the offense.