Summary:

Toronto Patterson began selling crack cocaine and openly displayed his gang membership when he was 15 years old.

By age 17, he developed an affinity for expensive chrome and gold automobile wheels. Knowing that a cousin in the penetentiary stored a BMW with such wheels at the home of Evelyn Stiff, he drove there and visited with his cousin, Kimberly Brewer.

He left, only to return later, entering and shooting Kimberly and her two daughters, 3 year old Ollie, and 6 year old Jennifer. All three were shot in the head and died.

Patterson then took 3 of 4 wheels off the BMW in the garage and fled. That same afternoon, Patterson tried to sell the stolen wheels. The clothing that Patterson wore earlier in the day had tiny spots of blood and was recovered, along with the wheels from Patterson's girlfriend's home.

Upon arrest, Patterson at first claimed that two Jamaicans actually did the shooting. In the second statement, after he was confronted with the fact that police had located the wheels at his girlfriend's house, Patterson admitted that he was the one who committed the triple homicide.

At trial, Patterson recanted and claimed that the statement had been coerced. He was tried only on charges of killing the 3-year-old. Because the girl was under 6, Patterson was found guilty of a capital offense.

In a classic case of returning to the scene of the crime, prosecutors scanning television coverage of the bodies being removed from the house spotted Patterson in the video.

Final Meal:

Six pieces of crispy fried chicken, four jalapeno peppers, four buttered buttermilk biscuits, chef salad (with bacon bits, black olives, ham, and Italian dressing), six Sprites, and white cake with white icing.

Final Words:

"I am sorry for the pain, sorry for what I caused my friends, family, and loved ones. I feel a great deal of responsibility and guilt for what happened. I should be punished for the crime, but I do not think I should die for a crime I did not commit."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory

Friday, Aug. 23, 2002

Toronto Patterson Scheduled to be Executed.

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Toronto Patterson, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2002.

On Nov. 20, 1995, Toronto Patterson was sentenced to die for the capital murder of Ollie Brown in Dallas, Texas, on June 6, 1995.

A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

Toronto Patterson began selling crack cocaine when he was 15 years old. As a drug dealer, Patterson earned $500 to $700 a day and developed an affinity for expensive chrome and gold or all gold automobile wheels.

Patterson owned a car that was equipped with such wheels, but it was stolen in April 1995. Patterson was aware that Vernon Stiff, a cousin who was serving time in the penitentiary, stored a BMW with expensive wheels at the home of Evelyn Stiff, Patterson's great-aunt.

On June 6, 1995, around 10 or 11a.m., Patterson left his girlfriend's house and informed a friend that he was going to physical therapy for a back injury. On that same day, Patterson drove his grandmother's car to Evelyn Stiff's home and visited with Kimberly Brewer, one of Evelyn's daughters.

After chatting with Kimberly for about 15 minutes, Patterson went to physical therapy.

Thereafter, Patterson returned to Evelyn's house and fatally shot Kimberly and her two children, three-year-old Ollie, and six-year-old Jennifer, with a .38-revolver. Patterson shot Kimberly in the head as she relaxed on a living room recliner.

He shot Jennifer in the head as she watched cartoons and played in her bedroom. Ollie, who was on the bed in the same room, was killed by a gunshot to the head. Ollie also had gunshot wounds to her left hand and neck.

The children's injuries indicated that Patterson was only three feet away when he shot them, and Ollie's injuries were consistent with an adult standing over her and firing downward while she cowered in the corner of the bed and covered her ears.

After committing the murders, Patterson proceeded to the garage, unfastened three of the wheels from the BMW, and placed them in his grandmother's car. He was unable to unfasten the fourth wheel. Patterson did not take any other valuable items from the house.

Around 2 or 3 p.m., Patterson returned to his girlfriend's house looking scared and out-of-breath. He immediately changed his clothes and explained to his friend that he had just robbed and shot someone in an attempt to rob the person of his wheels, and that he needed help carting three of the wheels into the house.

That same afternoon, Patterson tried to sell the stolen wheels to Aycock Tire and Wheel but because he was unable to make a deal with the store manager, he kept the wheels in his girlfriend's garage.

Police officers arrested Patterson on murder charges the same day, and searched both Patterson's vehicle and the residence of Patterson's girlfriend. The clothing that Patterson wore earlier in the day had tiny spots of blood that were consistent with a blood pattern that would result from shooting someone in the head.

On June 7, 1995, Patterson submitted two written statements to a police detective, admitting to, and apologizing for, his involvement in the murders. In the first statement, Patterson claimed that he gave the stolen wheels to "two Jamaicans" who actually did the shooting.

In the second statement, after he was confronted with the fact that police had located the wheels at his girlfriend's house, Patterson admitted that he was the one who committed the triple homicide.

Patterson testified in his defense at trial, and presented a twist on the "Jamaicans-made-me-do-it" story, claiming that he had nothing to do with the murders and that his previous statements to the contrary were coerced.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On June 23, 1995, Patterson was indicted for capital murder in the 5th Criminal District Court of Dallas County, Texas. He pleaded "not guilty." Trial on the merits began on Nov. 10, 1995, and on Nov. 17, 1995, the jury returned a verdict of "guilty."

Following a separate punishment hearing, the same jury answered "yes" to the future dangerousness special issue and found that no mitigating circumstance warranted that Patterson be sentenced to life imprisonment. Consequently, on Nov. 20, 1995, the trial court assessed punishment at death.

Patterson's conviction and sentence were automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, but in 1999, that court affirmed in an unpublished opinion. The Supreme Court denied certiorari review later that same year.

On Sept. 4, 1997, while his direct appeal was pending, Patterson petitioned for state habeas relief. The trial court recommended that relief be denied, and on Feb. 3, 1999, the Court of Criminal Appeals adopted that recommendation after reviewing the record. On Dec. 16, 1999, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas stayed Patterson's execution to allow him to seek federal habeas corpus relief.

Before filing his federal petition, Patterson submitted a second state habeas petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals on April 3, 2000.

On May 3, 2000, the Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed that successive petition as an abuse of the writ.

On Oct. 4, 2000, Patterson applied for federal habeas relief in the district court. On Aug. 17, 2001, that court issued a final order denying relief, and also denied Patterson's request for a certificate of appealability. On Feb. 26, 2002, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Patterson's request for a certificate of appealability.

On June 28, 2002, the Supreme Court denied Patterson's petition for certiorari to the Fifth Circuit. On or about July 29, 2002, Patterson filed a third state writ in the Court of Criminal Appeals, which was dismissed as an abuse of the writ on Aug. 20, 2002.

Patterson has informed the Supreme Court that he intends to file both an original writ and another certiorari petition by Friday, Aug. 23, 2002.

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND

Patterson belonged to a gang when he was a high school sophomore, he wore his gang colors to school, carried a beeper, defied authority, and failed to attend his classes. Patterson threatened to kill school authorities when they confiscated his beeper, and dropped out of high school during his sophomore year.

The year before the murders, Patterson possessed a .38 handgun and a 9 mm handgun. That same year, he fired a "Mac 12" gun at one of his friends. On Sept. 6, 1994, after police officers found a loaded 9 mm handgun in Patterson's vehicle during a routine traffic stop, Patterson was charged as a juvenile for unlawful weapon possession. The case was ultimately dismissed.

Patterson was also a drug dealer and stole money from a drug customer on at least two occasions. On March 10 and March 12, 1994, Patterson sold cocaine to an undercover FBI informant in an area of Dallas that was heavily occupied by gang members.

Three justices question execution of minors

Rare dissent urges high court to revisit death penalty issue

CNN Law Center

August 30, 2002

ProDeathPenalty.com

Toronto Patterson was 17 when he killed his cousin's 3-year-old daughter for three chrome and gold wheels on June 6, 1995.

According to court records, Kimberly Brewer was found dead from gunshot wounds in her den, and her daughters - 6-year-old Jennifer and Ollie - had been slain in the room which they shared.

The only things missing from the house were 3 chrome and gold car wheels from Kimberly's brother's BMW, which was parked in the garage.

Patterson had visited his cousin, Kimberly, and had returned to his girlfriend's house in a panic saying he just stole 3 wheels, documents showed.

Patterson, in a written confession, stated that he killed all 3, adding that he walked into the children's room and fired twice with his eyes closed.

The courts ruled that the evidence - including the facts that the victims were killed in relaxed positions as though by someone they trusted and that Patterson was known to like fancy wheels - was sufficient. He was tried only on charges of killing the 3-year-old. Because the girl was under 6, Patterson was found guilty of a capital offense.

Toronto Markkey Patterson

Txexecutions.org

Toronto Markkey Patterson, 24, was executed by lethal injection on 28 August in Huntsville, Texas for killing his cousin and her two children in their home.

In June 1995, someone entered the home of Evelyn Stiff and shot three people to death. Kimberly Brewer, Stiff's 25-year-old daughter, was shot in the living room as she was lying on a recliner. Brewer's six-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was shot on the floor of her bedroom. Brewer's other daughter, Ollie, 3, was shot in her bed in the same room as Jennifer. All three victims were shot in the head with a .38-caliber weapon. Ollie, who died with her hands covering her ears, was also shot in the hand and neck. Three chrome and gold wheel rims were also stolen from a BMW stored in Stiff's garage.

Toronto Patterson, 17, had been dealing drugs since he was 15. He was known for wearing expensive jewelry and clothing and driving expensive cars. He once owned a car with expensive gold and chrome wheel rims, but in April, it was stolen. He knew that his cousin, Vernon Stiff, owned a BMW with expensive wheels. He also knew that Stiff was serving time in the penitentiary, and he was storing his car in his mother's garage.

On the morning of the murders, Patterson left his live-in girlfriend's house and told her that he was going to receive physical therapy for a back injury. About four hours later, Patterson returned home. He changed his clothes and told his girlfriend that he had shot someone and stolen their wheel rims. That afternoon, he took the wheels from Vernon Stiff's car, which were worth around $2,000, to a dealer, but did not sell them. Later that day, when police and news crews were at the murder scene, Patterson and his girlfriend went there to observe what was going on.

Patterson was arrested that evening. The next day, he gave two written confessions to police. In the fist confession, he admitted stealing the wheels, but claimed that he gave them to Jamaican drug dealers, who committed the murders. When Patterson was informed that the stolen rims were found at his girlfriend's house, he gave another confession, in which he also admitted to the murders.

At his trial, Patterson pleaded not guilty. He testified that he had nothing to do with the murders, which he said were committed by Jamaican drug dealers. He testified that his confessions were coerced by police.

As evidence, prosecutors presented the wheel rims, which had Patterson's fingerprints on them, and the clothing found at his girlfriend's house, which had spots of blood from the victims on it. Prosecutors also showed a video of the television news coverage when the bodies were being removed from the house. Patterson and his girlfriend are seen in the background, watching.

Prosecutors also presented evidence that Patterson belonged to a gang in high school, and that he once threatened to kill school authorities when they confiscated his beeper. He dropped out of high school during his sophomore year. In 1994, at age 16, he was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, a loaded 9mm handgun that was found in his car during a routine traffic stop. He also once sold cocaine to an undercover FBI informant.

A jury convicted Patterson of the capital murder of Ollie Smith in November 1995 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal in January 1999. Patterson's lawyers initiated some of his habeas corpus appeals while his direct appeal was still pending. All of his appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Patterson, known in prison as "Tonto," maintained his innocence in a death-row interview. He said that his confession was coerced and his request to see an attorney was denied. "I was in that room so long and didn't know which way was up. [The detective] was telling me what I did. The way he said I was going to be able to talk to someone ... was once I told him what he wanted to hear ... So, I told him, so I would be able to go to the judge and let him know how he did me in that room and stuff. But I found out later, it wasn't like that."

Patterson said that he started selling drugs because "I wanted to kind of keep up, be accepted. By just keeping up with the everyday fad, I would be accepted -- clothes, hairstyles, jewelry, whatever. I started selling drugs to keep up." Patterson's girlfriend was pregnant at the time of his arrest. She gave birth to a daughter, who Patterson saw only once, across the glass at a visitation session.

Two days prior to Patterson's execution, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 16-1 against commuting his sentence to life in prison. The parole board also voted 17-0 against granting a stay of execution. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal by a 6-3 vote.

"I am sorry for the pain, sorry for what I caused my friends, family, and loved ones," Patterson said in his last statement. "I feel a great deal of responsibility and guilt for what happened. I should be punished for the crime, but I do not think I should die for a crime I did not commit," he said. He continued with his last statement, asking for forgiveness and expressing love to his family. Afterward, the lethal injection was started. Patterson was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m.

Death Row Inmate Toronto Patterson Executed

Houston Chronicle

August 28, 2002

HUNTSVILLE -- Apologetic but maintaining his innocence, a former teenage drug dealer was executed this evening for killing a 3-year-old cousin at her Dallas home -- one of three relatives gunned down -- so he could steal some fancy car wheels.

"I am sorry for the pain, sorry for what I caused my friends, family and loved ones," Toronto Patterson, now 24, said while strapped to the death chamber gurney. "I feel a great deal of responsibility and guilt for what happened. "I should be punished for the crime, but I do not think I should die for a crime I did not commit." Patterson said that while he was sorry, nothing could bring back the victims. He prayed his death would bring peace and unite his family. "I ask for your forgiveness and that you will all forgive me," he said. "I invite you all to my funeral. We are still family." As the drugs began taking effect, Patterson exhaled and then gasped. Nine minutes later at 6:20 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.

Patterson was 17 when he was arrested for the fatal shootings of Ollie Brown, 3; her sister, Jennifer, 6; and their mother, Kimberly Brewer, 25.

His age at the time of the slayings renewed criticism of capital punishment for teenagers from death penalty opponents. Two other condemned killers were executed in Texas -- one three weeks ago and another in May -- for crimes committed when they were 17.

While execution critics referred to them as juveniles, under the law in Texas and at least 21 other states they were adults. "If the age was 18, then the 18-year-olds would be someone complained about; if it was 19, it would be the 19-year-olds," said Jason January, who was among Patterson's prosecutors and witnessed the execution at the request of relatives of the slaying victims. "If someone wants to be worried about the execution of juveniles, they should have worried about it when Toronto was filling Ollie, 3 years old, full of holes, and Jennifer, full of holes. Not just one shot, but multiple shots."

Patterson was the 23rd Texas inmate executed this year and the fifth this month. Five more are scheduled to die in September. "I'm scared, but being here, seeing so many other people with dates dying, and how everything gets in motion, I pretty much seen how things are going to go. I guess you'd say -- something like a routine," Patterson said in an interview last week on death row, where he is known as "Tonto."

Patterson was the 13th Texas inmate and the 21st in the United States put to death since 1976 for a murder committed when the killer was younger than 18.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier this week refused requests for a reprieve or for clemency. Patterson's attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, contending his punishment, because of his age at the time of the crime, would be unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

About two hours before his scheduled execution time, the high court, in a 6-3 vote, rejected his appeal. "Such executions not only violate international norms, they also offend human decency," said Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "The mind of a juvenile offender is by definition less developed than the mind of an adult." Not so, said George West, one of the Dallas County district attorneys who prosecuted Patterson. "The stated age of an individual is one thing, their maturity and experience is another," West said. "And this guy wasn't a dummy."

Evidence showed Patterson went to the home of his great-aunt on June 6, 1995, so he could steal the chrome wheels from a BMW stored there. Similar wheels on his own car had been stolen. Armed with a .38-caliber pistol, prosecutors said he shot Brewer, his cousin and his great-aunt's daughter, as she was seated in a recliner.

Then he moved on to the children, shooting the 6-year-old as she watched cartoons on television, and the 3-year-old as she cowered in a corner of the room, her hands over her ears. "It was extremely sad," West said this week. "The only person who could stop him physically was Kimberly, the woman... But what does he do? He decides: 'I've got to eliminate eyewitnesses because that means I could try to increase my odds of not getting caught. So I eliminate the two kids who know me.' "No question about thought processes there," West added. "There was no need to kill the kids otherwise."

Authorities said he then took three rims from the car but was unable to remove the fourth. His fingerprints were found on the rims, left at his girlfriend's house. His bloody clothing was traced to the victims. He told his girlfriend he had robbed and shot someone. He was arrested the following day. Police saw him in news footage in the crowd outside his cousins' house as the bodies were being removed. He was not grieving, prosecutors recalled.

In testimony at his trial and in interviews, he blamed the deaths on unnamed "Jamaicans." "I wasn't there when the shootings occurred," he said last week. "It was a hokey story," said January. "We were very very confident we got the right man."

Dallas Man Convicted of Murder at 17 Set to Die

By Michael Graczyk - Dallas Morning News

AP - August 27, 2002

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — For the second time this month — and third this year — a Texas inmate who was 17 when he was arrested for capital murder is set to be put to death, prompting criticism again from death penalty opponents about executing teenage offenders.

Toronto Patterson, now 24, faced lethal injection Wednesday evening for the fatal shooting of a 3-year-old cousin — one of three relatives gunned down in 1995 in Dallas.

Prosecutors said Patterson, who quit school after the ninth grade because he was making a lucrative living dealing drugs in Dallas, killed Ollie Brown; her sister, Jennifer, 6; and their mother, Kimberly Brewer, 25, so he could steal the expensive custom chrome wheels from a BMW car parked in the garage of their home. In 1995 in Dallas, at least nine people were killed for the fancy wheels, which could cost as much as $4,500 a set.

In Patterson's case, he was able to get only three of the four wheels off the car. "Not only was he a killer, he was an ineffective burglar," said Jason January, who was an assistant district attorney in Dallas County and among the prosecutors in the case.

Patterson, arrested a day after the June 6, 1995, shootings after the wheels were found at his girlfriend's house, gave numerous versions of the slayings, ranging from no involvement to being at the scene. He always, however, has blamed unnamed "Jamaicans" for the carnage.

In an interview last week on death row, where he is known as "Tonto," Patterson said he was at the east Dallas home the day of the shootings, but "I wasn't there when they were killed." "I think it's not fair because I did not kill anyone," he said of his punishment. "I'm sorry for the pain I've my family but beyond that, no comment." "He told one of his friends that he just 'jacked' somebody," George West, another prosecutor in the case, said this week. "He had taken the rims to his girlfriend's house. They matched the ones on the car."

In a classic case of returning to the scene of the crime, prosecutors scanning television coverage of the bodies being removed from the house spotted Patterson in the video. "Lo and behold, there's Tonto and the girlfriend just hanging back in the crowd checking it out," January said. "We were shocked to see it. There's his own family and he's not going up to comfort anybody. He's just lurking in the background."

Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Patterson, who he characterized as a juvenile, could not handle "social pressure, instinctual urges and other stresses the way that adult minds do. "Juvenile offenders therefore cannot be held to the same degree of culpability as adults, just as mentally retarded people cannot be held to the same degree of culpability." But according to Texas law, and the law in at least 21 other states, Patterson at age 17 was an adult and eligible for the death penalty.

Patterson's lawyers had appeals pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, contending his execution would be unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. As it has in the past, the European Union, through the Danish Embassy, and Amnesty International USA, which oppose capital punishment in all cases, urged Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the sentence to life or grant a reprieve.

The parole board on Monday voted 17-0 against recommending a reprieve and 16-1 against recommending commutation. In May, Texas inmate Napoleon Beazley was executed for a carjacking slaying in Tyler in 1994 when he was 17. "I figured then I'd soon be dead," said Patterson, who was friends with Beazley on death row.

Then earlier this month, T.J. Jones, condemned for a carjacking slaying in Longview in 1994 when he was 17, was put to death after asking no additional appeals be made to spare him. Jones became the 12th Texas inmate and the 20th in the United States put to death since 1976 for a murder committed when the killer was younger than 18. For the year, Patterson would be the 23rd condemned prisoner executed in Texas and fifth this month.

Life on death row for Patterson has been a far cry from hustling drugs on the streets of Dallas, where since the age of 15 he said he was making hundreds or even more than a thousand dollars a day, buying fancy clothes "and a lot of stuff I wasn't able to enjoy when I was younger."

When he was arrested, a girlfriend was pregnant, and their child was born after he was in custody. The first and only time he's seen his daughter, now 6, was in May when the child's mother brought her briefly to the death row visiting area, where inmates behind glass speak with visitors on telephones. "I'd give my life just to hug and kiss her once," the convicted child-killer said.

Toronto Markkey Patterson

Action Issued: 31 July 2002 - USA (Texas)

Amnesty International

Toronto Patterson (m), black, aged 24, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 28 August for a murder committed when he was aged 17. International law, respected in almost every country of the world except the USA, prohibits the death penalty against people who were under 18 at the time of the crime. The following day it was discovered that a car at the house had had its wheels stolen.

The car belonged to Vernon Stiff, an older cousin of Toronto Patterson who had introduced the teenager to drug dealing in 1993 as a way for Patterson to be able to afford school clothes and supplies. Police arrested Toronto Patterson after they learned that he had a penchant for expensive car wheels, that his had been stolen a short while before, and that he had visited the victims’ home on the day of the murders.

Without a lawyer present, Toronto Patterson gave police a statement in which he admitted to being at the scene of the crime with two Jamaican drug dealers (whose existence was later verified by a trial witness), but did not admit to the murders themselves.

An aggressive interrogation followed, during which Toronto Patterson allegedly asked for a lawyer and for the interrogation to be recorded. After being held incommunicado for over four hours, Toronto Patterson confessed to the shootings: “I’m sorry for what I have done to my family and friends. I confess to Detective Wig that I want y’all to know that I love y’all and I didn’t want nothing to happen to me, nor family or friends. I can be rehabilitated. This is the hardest situation I have ever been in dealing with the Jamaicans. I will never do it again”.

In a completely separate case in Dallas a month later, 21-year-old Michael Martinez was arrested and charged with capital murder. He confessed to the same police officer, who apparently used the same techniques he had employed in Toronto Patterson’s case.

Martinez’s confession was false, and he was later exonerated. Patterson’s jury was not allowed to hear Martinez’s testimony to weigh against Patterson’s claim that his confession had been coerced and that he was innocent of the murders. Over the years in the USA, several prisoners who confessed to the crimes which put them on death row have been released after evidence of their innocence emerged.

The US Supreme Court said in 1982 that “the chronological age of a minor is itself a relevant mitigating factor of great weight”. Nevertheless, Toronto Patterson’s trial lawyers did not present the jury with expert or any other evidence about age as a mitigating issue.

The lawyers also failed to present substantial evidence of Toronto Patterson’s abusive and deprived childhood. From an early age he was exposed to drugs, alcohol and violence in his home and the community. His mother used to beat him; sometimes using electric cords and sticks.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals then appointed a lawyer to represent Toronto Patterson for his appeals. This lawyer had never handled such an appeal. The one he filed for Toronto Patterson was six pages long.

Such appeals filed by adequately funded, experienced lawyers can be expected to run to 150 pages because of the number of issues raised and the complexity of the law. Toronto Patterson’s appeal did not challenge his trial lawyer’s failure to investigate and present the above mitigating issues. Because they were not raised in the state courts, such issues have been lost to review by the federal courts.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Toronto Patterson was born less than two weeks after the USA signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1977, and he was sentenced to death three years after the USA ratified the treaty in 1992. Article 6(5) prohibits the use of the death penalty against people who were under 18 at the time of the crime; a prohibition which stems from recognition of a young person’s immaturity, impulsiveness, vulnerability to peer pressure, and capacity for rehabilitation. Since 1990, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which carries the same prohibition, has been ratified by 191 countries; all but the USA and Somalia.

When the USA ratified the ICCPR, it filed a “reservation” purporting to exempt it from the prohibition on the execution on child offenders.

The Human Rights Committee, the expert body established by the ICCPR to oversee implementation of the treaty, has stated that the reservation is invalid and should be withdrawn. It has confirmed that the prohibition cannot be derogated from, even in times of emergency, and has “deplored” the USA’s continuing execution of child offenders.

Since 1998, there have been 15 executions of child offenders documented worldwide, 10 in the USA (six in Texas). Yemen and Pakistan, two of the six other countries reported to have executed child offenders since 1990, have since abolished such use of the death penalty.

It was recently reported that 74 child offenders who had remained on death row in Pakistan have had their death sentences commuted. Another of the six countries, Democratic Republic of Congo, commuted the death sentences of five child offenders in 2001.