... in relationship to juveniles seemed to show that capital punishment was not a very effective punishment. From the retributive standpoint, the justices concluded that it could not be applied to juveniles because of their potential and capacity to grow and their lower standard of "culpability" (Ricotta, 1988). From the deterrent standpoint, they questioned whether a certain age would be more deterred ... overall assessment, whether inconclusive or not, was that without retribution and/or deterrence, capital punishment "is nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain a...

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