Opinion: Youth deserve second chances, not the death penalty

In 1986 my world was turned upside down. My 26-year-old daughter Cathy was brutally raped and murdered by two 15-year-old boys. Some people may find it strange that 34 years after this loss, I spend my time advocating for second chances for young offenders – including individuals like Billy Joe Wardlow, who is scheduled for execution by the State of Texas next month. Yet my personal experience has shown me that young people who commit heinous crimes can change.

After Cathy’s death, my husband John and I were devastated. We didn’t know how to make sense of our loss, so we joined a support group for parents of murdered children. At first, we were relieved to find people who understood what we were going through. However, we soon found ourselves caught up in the group’s other mission, which was to advocate for harsher punishments and longer sentences. I even agreed to be part of a video aimed at lowering the eligibility age for the death penalty to 13. After a while, though, I realized the focus on anger, revenge, and retribution was interfering with our healing and I needed to take another path, a path not focused on inflicting more punishment.

This is when I began my journey toward restorative justice—an approach that brings together victims and offenders in order to repair the harm that has been done. I also began advocating on behalf of youth whose tragic mistakes have landed them in prison, or in Billy Joe Wardlow’s case, on death row. Billy was just 18 years old when he broke into Carl Cole’s home and killed him during the course of a robbery in 1993 in Cason, Texas. He had no history of violence whatsoever.

Still, jurors sentenced Billy to death, deciding he posed a future danger to society, after hearing misinformation about how the prison would classify him if he received a life sentence and before new scientific research was available to shape society’s understanding of the juvenile brain.

My own experience has shown me that individuals who commit heinous acts as youth are capable of change. After being incarcerated for 23 years, Gary Brown, one of the two teens responsible for my daughter’s death, has become a law-abiding, productive citizen. He was released from prison in 2009, though his original sentence would have kept him there until he turned 70.

The Lone Star Justice Alliance recently filed an amicus brief in support of Billy Joe Wardlow with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on behalf of Texas-based researchers and professors with expertise in juvenile brain development and juvenile justice. They observe that modern neuroscience research has found that the areas of the brain responsible for impulse control, rational decision-making, and judgment are not fully developed until youth reach their mid 20s. It is impossible to predict whether a young person will be dangerous in the future. In fact, the research shows that the vast majority of young people simply age out of criminal behavior.

This is why in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that youth under the age of 18 should not be eligible for execution, noting, “The reality that juveniles still struggle to define their identity means it is less supportable to conclude that even a heinous crime committed by a juvenile is evidence of irretrievably depraved character.” The Court also noted that “[t]he qualities that distinguish juveniles from adults do not disappear when an individual turns 18.”

It is for all of these reasons that a prediction of future dangerousness required by the Texas capital sentencing statute cannot reliably be made for someone under 21 years old, and why Billy Joe Wardlow should not be executed by the state of Texas next month.

I stand with the Lone Star Justice Alliance and other advocates in urging the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to take a close look at this case and overturn his death sentence.

White lives in the Houston area.