Too Young for the Death Penalty: An Empirical Examination of Community Conscience and the Juvenile Death Penalty from the Perspective of Capital Jurors

As our analysis of jury decisionmaking in juvenile capital trials was nearing completion, the Missouri Supreme Court declared the juvenile death penalty unconstitutional in Simmons v. Roper. The court held that the execution of persons younger than eighteen years of age at the time of their crime violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. This decision patently rejected the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s ruling in Stanford v. Kentucky, which permitted the execution of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds. In deciding Simmons, the Missouri Supreme Court applied the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s reasoning in Atkins v. Virginia to the juvenile death penalty. In Atkins, the Supreme Court found that there was a national consensus against the death penalty for the mentally retarded that made their execution constitutionally unacceptable. Similarly, in Simmons, the Missouri Supreme Court found that there was a national consensus against the death penalty for juveniles and ruled that juveniles could no longer be executed as a matter of federal constitutional law. The dissenting judges in this four-to-three decision did not take issue with the substantive findings of the majority, but objected instead to what they regarded as the impropriety of their state supreme court making a federal constitutional ruling that contravened an earlier U.S. Supreme Court decision. The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari for a Fall 2004 review of the Simmons case in which it will have an opportunity to consider new evidence on the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty--evidence of a kind it has lamented not having in earlier death penalty challenges, including specifically a challenge to the juvenile death penalty\u27s constitutionality. This is evidence regarding real capital jurors\u27 exercise of sentencing discretion in cases where they have actually decided whether defendants, whose crimes were committed when they were juveniles, should live or die. This article presents this newly available evidence from capital jurors in an assessment of the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. Drawing upon interviews conducted by the Capital Jury Project with persons who served as capital jurors, we are able to compare jurors who served on cases where the defendant was less than eighteen years of age at the time of the crime with those who served on cases with defendants eighteen years of age and older. We can contrast how capital jurors in these cases assessed the culpability of the defendants and the appropriateness of the death sentence

Sentiers de suivi de la croissance, de la mortalité et de la phénologie des arbres tropicaux. Guide méthodologique

The sustainability of natural forest management in Central Africa depends on a thorough understanding of the population dynamics of commercial tree populations. These dynamics are studied in systems designed to be monitored over the long term, known as plots and trails. While the methodological approach for setting up and monitoring plots is fairly well documented, the approach for trails is less well documented. This book fills this gap by capitalizing on the experience accumulated over more than 20 years by the members of the DYNAFAC collective, a group created on the initiative of ATIBT, CIRAD, Nature+ and Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech. It is a practical and illustrated guide explaining the process necessary for the installation and monitoring of these trails. In addition to the technical procedures, the guide also assesses the costs, taking into account the economic specificities of different countries in the sub-region. By addressing all stakeholders in the development and management of Africa's forests, the book aims to promote the implementation of robust and efficient systems within everyone's reach. / La durabilité de l'aménagement des forêts naturelles d'Afrique centrale est tributaire d'une connaissance approfondie de la dynamique démographique des populations d'arbres commerciaux. Cette dynamique est étudiée dans des dispositifs destinés à être suivis sur le long terme, dénommés parcelles et sentiers. Si la démarche méthodologique d'installation et de suivi des parcelles est assez bien documentée, celle des sentiers l'est moins. Le présent ouvrage vient combler ce vide en capitalisant l'expérience accumulée depuis plus de 20 ans par les membres du collectif DYNAFAC, un collectif créé à l'initiative de l'ATIBT, du CIRAD, de Nature+ et de Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech. Il s'agit d'un guide pratique et illustré explicitant la démarche nécessaire à l'installation et au suivi de ces sentiers. Outre les procédures techniques, le guide évalue également les coûts en tenant compte des spécificités économiques de différents pays de la sous-région. En s'adressant à l'ensemble des parties prenantes de l'aménagement et de la gestion des forêts d'Afrique, l'ouvrage a pour ambition de promouvoir la mise en oeuvre de dispositifs robustes et efficients à la portée de tous

Women's experience following a cardiac event: the role of the self in healing

This study explored the role of the self in the experiences of women living with cardiovascular disease. The study, which used a naturalistic design, involved interviewing 13 women with a diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD) and analyzing their reports through constant comparative analysis. For women, living with CHD was characterized by changing images of the self. Women reported engaging in processes involving seeking meaning, creating mastery, and accepting the self. These processes were marked by the overarching theme of connectedness with significant others. The study findings enhance understanding of the role of the self in recovery for women with diagnosed CH

Gene flow within a population of the outbreeding Sinapis arvensis. Isozyme analysis of half-sib families

International audienc

FOXF1 inhibits hematopoietic lineage commitment during early mesoderm specification.

The molecular mechanisms orchestrating early mesoderm specification are still poorly understood. In particular, how alternate cell fate decisions are regulated in nascent mesoderm remains mostly unknown. In the present study, we investigated both in vitro in differentiating embryonic stem cells and in vivo in gastrulating embryos the lineage specification of early mesodermal precursors expressing or not the Forkhead transcription factor FOXF1. Our data revealed that FOXF1-expressing mesoderm is derived from FLK1+ progenitors and that in vitro this transcription factor is expressed in smooth muscle and transiently in endothelial lineages but not in hematopoietic cells. In gastrulating embryos, FOXF1 marks most extra-embryonic mesoderm derivatives including the chorion, the allantois, the amnion and a subset of endothelial cells. Similarly to the in vitro situation, FOXF1 expression is excluded from the blood islands and blood cells. Further analysis revealed an inverse correlation between hematopoietic potential and FOXF1 expression in vivo with increase commitment toward primitive erythropoiesis in Foxf1 deficient embryos while FOXF1-enforced expression in vitro was shown to repress hematopoiesis. Altogether our data establish that, during gastrulation, FOXF1 marks all posterior primitive streak extra-embryonic mesoderm derivatives with the remarkable exception of the blood lineage. Our study further suggests that this transcription factor is implicated in actively restraining the specification of mesodermal progenitors to hematopoiesis.</jats:p

Using MODIS Time Series to Characterize the Annual Dynamics of Photosynthesis in Tropical Forests of Central Africa

In the framework of the CoForChange project, (predicing the effects of global change on forest biodiversity in the Congo Basin region) we propose a new method of satellite imagery analysis to characterise the spatial patterns of tropical forest in central Africa. We use a 10-year time series remotely sensed data from TERRA-MODIS sensor to identify the variations of forest photosynthetic activity intensty within a synthesis year. The processing was done using the 16-days enhanced vegetation index data and crossing this information with field inventories. We found a good match between the satellite imagery and the gradient of evergreen dominance.This detailes spatial and temporal information should provide a better basis to monitor carbon in this poorly known region.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

Capital Jurors as the Litmus Test of Community Conscience for the Juvenile Death Penalty

This fall, the United States Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty in Simmons v. Roper. The Eighth Amendment issue before the Court in Simmons will be whether the juvenile death penalty accords with the conscience of the community. This article presents evidence that bears directly on the conscience of the community in juvenile capital cases as revealed through extensive in-depth interviews with jurors who made the critical life-or-death decision in such cases. The data come from the Capital Jury Project, a national study of the exercise of sentencing discretion in capital cases conducted with the support of the National Science Foundation

Capital Jurors as the Litmus Test of Community Conscience for the Juvenile Death Penalty

This fall, the United States Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty in Simmons v. Roper. The Eighth Amendment issue before the Court in Simmons will be whether the juvenile death penalty accords with the conscience of the community. This article presents evidence that bears directly on the conscience of the community in juvenile capital cases as revealed through extensive in-depth interviews with jurors who made the critical life-or-death decision in such cases. The data come from the Capital Jury Project, a national study of the exercise of sentencing discretion in capital cases conducted with the support of the National Science Foundation