Stanford v. Kentucky

These two consolidated cases require us to decide whether the imposition of capital punishment on an individual for a *365crime committed at 16 or 17 years of age constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

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The first case, No. 87-5765, involves the shooting death of 20-year-old Barbel Poore in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Petitioner Kevin Stanford committed the murder on January 7, 1981, when he was approximately 17 years and 4 months of age. Stanford and his accomplice repeatedly raped and sodomized Poore during and after their commission of a robbery at a gas station…