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Chief Justice:
William Rehnquist
Associate Justices:
- Anthony Kennedy
- David Souter
-Clarence Thomas
-Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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Supreme Court of Missouri
Decision: A majority of Americans did not consider the execution of minors to be cruel and unusual.

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17 year old Christopher Simmons was sentenced to death in 1993.  A series of appeals to state and federal courts lasted until 2002, but each appeal was rejected. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the mentally disabled, violated the Eighth and 14th Amendment prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment, the Missouri Supreme Court decided to reconsider Simmons' case.

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The nation had changed their opinion on the death penalty. Majority of Americans opposed the execution of minors & the courts held that they were unconstitutional.

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The Court ruled that standards of decency have evolved so that executing minors is "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment

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Judicial Activism
- This case overturned the execution of a convicted murderer
- judges used their power to impose their own values

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The government argued that allowing a state court to overturn a Supreme Court decision" would be dangerous, because the state courts could just as easily decide that executions

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Q: Does the execution of minors violate the prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" found in the Eighth Amendment and applied to the states through the incorporation doctrine of the 14th Amendment?
A: It was agreed that this was cruel and unusual as a punishment. It was decided to be inappropriate for minors.