In an unusual public statement about the death penalty,...

In an unusual public statement about the death penalty, 3 Supreme Court justices said the time is right to consider abolishing capital punishment for killers who committed their crimes as minors. Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer could not persuade the rest of the court to delay Wednesday's execution of a Texas inmate for a killing committed when he was 17. Toronto Patterson had asked the high court to delay his execution. The three justices, part of the court's liberal wing, said Patterson's execution should be put off at least until the Supreme Court next meets in September to consider cases for the coming term. Sixteen of the 38 states that allow the death penalty prohibit executing those who were under 18 when they killed.