Oklahoma executed Sean Sellers on February 4

Oklahoma executed Sean Sellers on February 4. Sellers was only 16 years of age when he killed his parents. This was the first execution of a 16-year-old offender in the U.S. in 40 years. International protests from groups and prominent individuals such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson were unable to stop this execution. In her statement Robinson said if sentence were carried out it would "run counter to established international principles and the international community's expressed desire for the abolition of the death penalty." Robinson, former president of Ireland, said she acknowledged the seriousness of Sellers' crime, but argued that an end to capital punishment would help enhance human dignity and the development of human rights. "The killing of one or more individuals cannot be used to justify killing another," Robinson declared. Leaders of the Jewish Reform movement, speaking on behalf of the largest branch within the American Jewish community, called upon Gov. Frank Keating to stay the execution. In a letter to the Governor, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, wrote that Sellers' execution "would represent a breach of American moral sensibilities, Jewish values and international human rights treaties." Just over 10 years ago, Oklahoma tried to execute a 15-year old offender but the U.S. declared that to be unconstitutional in Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988).