On death row: Dylann Roof, 22, committed mass murder in South Carolina
In January, Dylann Roof, 22, received a death sentence for the 2015 hate crime killing of nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church. Overall, however, the use of capital punishment in the U.S. has declined in recent years as opposition to it has grown. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled (in Atkins v. Virginia) that the death penalty for mentally disabled defendants violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. And in 2005, the justices barred the execution of those who’d committed their crimes as minors (in Roper v. Simmons).
Here, two experts argue whether the death penalty is too harsh a punishment for any crime.