Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, medical experts, and 48 nations are among those who filed friend-of-the-court briefs on Monday (July 19) urging the U.S. Supreme Court to end the juvenile death penalty. The Court is scheduled to hear arguments this fall in Roper v. Simmons, a case that will determine the constitutionality of executing juvenile offenders. The U.S. is one of only a handful of nations around the world that continues to permit the execution of juvenile offenders, and one of only five nations (Congo, China, Iran, Pakistan, and the U.S.) to carry out such executions during the past four years, according to the brief filed by Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Carter and Gorbachev. The Court also received briefs from the 25-nation European Union, Mexico, Canada, and other nations that argued that executions of juvenile offenders “violates widely accepted human rights norms and the minimum standards of human rights set forth by the United Nations.” Similar briefs were filed by former U.S. diplomats, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (Associated Press, July 19, 2004) View the Amicus Briefs. See DPIC’s Roper v. Simmons page.