| In Virginia, Douglas Christopher Thomas was 17 when he fatally shot the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Jessica Wiseman, after they forbade the young lovers to see each other. A federal judge wrote that "[T]he record strongly supports the conclusion that it was Jessica Wiseman who wanted her parents killed and who instigated Thomas to carry out her wishes." Yet, Thomas received the death sentence; Wiseman, because of her age, was sent to juvenile detention until her 21st birthday. She was freed in 1997. "Me being executed and her walking around, I don't see any fairness in it," Thomas told U.S. News 11 days before his January 10 execution date. Maybe not. But there's a reason. "He got the maximum under the law at that time. She got the maximum under the law," says prosecutor James H. Ward Jr. The Supreme Court effectively set 16 as the minimum age for a death sentence in 1988 in Thompson v. Oklahoma. "[I]t would offend civilized standards of decency to execute a person who was less than 16 years old at the time of his or her offense," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote. The court found that "inexperience, less education, and less intelligence makes the teenager less able to evaluate the consequences of his or her conduct." "Everyone makes mistakes as a teenager, some bigger than others," said Thomas, 26, by phone from Virginia's Sussex I maximum security state prison in December. "What I did was wrong. But I'm not the same person I was at 17." No one, including Thomas, denied that he committed a horrible crime and deserves punishment. The United States, however, is by now virtually the only country in the world where someone as young as he was when he committed his crime can receive the ultimate punishment -- death. This January, Virginia and Texas plan to kick off the new millennium by executing four inmates for crimes they committed while they were, by most people's definition, just kids.Wasted youth Before Douglas Christopher Thomas was old enough to vote, buy a beer or serve on a jury, the state of Virginia decided he was old enough to die. Convicted of murdering his girlfriend's parents when he was 17, Thomas was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 10. In November 1991, Douglas Christopher Thomas was sentenced to death for the November 1990 capital murders of Kathy and J.B. Wiseman. Thomas was 17 years old at the time of the crime. Thomas had been dating 14 year old Jessica Wiseman, the daughter of Kathy and "J.B." for a while before the murders. Their relationship was serious and her parents did not approve. They pressured Jessica to break-up the relationship with Thomas, however, Jessica was unwilling to do so. She became angry with her parents and stated that she wished they were removed from her life. In his confession Thomas stated that he had smoked some marijuana on his way over to the Wiseman house on the night of the murders. He also carried with him a shotgun. He said Jessica helped him in the window and they then arranged some drugs on the floor to make it appear to be an attempted robbery. Thomas then went down the hall to the Wiseman's bedroom and shot them as they slept. Thomas said Mrs. Wiseman did not die from the first shooting and Jessica implored Thomas to shoot her again. He did, killing her instantly. Jessica was tried as a juvenile and was released when she turned 21. Death Row Inmate's Last Words -- U.S. Leads The World In Use Of The Death Penalty For Minors By Dennis Bernstein Date: 01-11-00 The execution of Douglas Christopher Thomas in Virginia for a crime he committed when he was 17-years-old drew considerable attention because his co-defendant served only seven years for the same crime. He is the first of three death row inmates scheduled to die this month for crimes committed when they were minors. Thomas talked with PNS correspondent Dennis Bernstein about fairness and his fate three days before he died. Bernstein is executive producer of the Pacifica radio daily news show "Flashpoints." Douglas Christopher Thomas was executed Monday for a crime he committed when he was 17-years-old. Thomas, who was 26, spent his entire adult life on death row. He was prepared for Virginia Governor James S. Gilmore's refusal to sign a stay of execution, saying he was ready to die. "The whole process that you go through while being on death row prepares you to die," he said, "because you're faced with death every day. If it is God's will that I die at 26, then I'm prepared to go." Thomas spoke with me Friday afternoon, January 7, by telephone from his death row cell. He was calm, forthright and quite focused as he repeated his claim that his girlfriend, Jessica Wiseman, masterminded the 1990 murder of her parents and fired the shot that killed her mother. Several federal court decisions and new evidence support Thomas' claim. Because Wiseman was 14 at the time of the crime, she is now free. Thomas said he was not bitter about this, but was troubled that "she was given only seven years, and she is free to resume her normal life while I'm four days away from paying the ultimate price for something we both participated in." Thomas initially took the blame for the 1990 double murder of James and Catherine Wiseman. He confessed without advice of counsel and while he was high on drugs and alcohol. Like many child and juvenile offenders, Thomas had an extremely difficult childhood. His parents divorced before he was born -- Thomas did not meet his father until last year. At two, his mother left him to be adopted and raised by his grandparents. When he was twelve, his life unraveled. Several close relatives, including his grandparents, died suddenly. He was shuffled back to his mother, though the two of them did not get along. In 1989, at 16, Thomas attempted to take his own life. Around this time, he met Wiseman. Thomas said he was so desperate for love he would have done anything his new girlfriend told him to do. Wiseman's parents tried to break up the couple, and her father threatened to kill him. "I wanted to be with my co-defendant," he said, "we were so much in love and her parents were trying to keep us apart. "Jessica just showed me that love I so desperately needed and wanted that I would have basically done anything to keep her around. But I was just a kid when I committed the crime. I mea, I still had the capacity to change, to grow, to learn, and I have." Thomas felt he should be given a chance to live. "I made the wrong decision. So I can't be angry at anyone but myself. But I don't feel the U.S. should execute juvenile offenders because it's basically saying that we have no chance to be rehabilitated. "I can't see how at seventeen a court could say, 'Well, this juvenile doesn't have the capacity to learn and to grow and to mature."' Thomas is not alone in his sentiments. In fact, failure to abide by international treaties and UN conventions regarding the execution of youthful and child offenders has made the United States a pariah state. Amnesty International reports 191 states have joined a "global consensus against executing child offenders." The United States has earned the "shameful distinction of leading a tiny and dwindling group of states.... Only five countries outside the United States are known to have executed child offenders since 1990." In that decade, the U.S. has executed 10 child offenders, more than the five other countries combined. Chris Thomas' execution means the United States is the first country in the world to execute a juvenile offender who claimed that such an execution violates international law and well established fundamental norms of international human rights. Two more death row inmates convicted of crimes as minors are scheduled to die this month -- Steve Edward Roach in Virginia on Jan. 13 and Glen Charles McGinnis in Texas on Jan. 25. The stay of execution in June left him with "mixed feelings," Thomas said. "Since I've been on death row I've been searching for one thing and that's finality. In June I thought finally something is going to happen. I'm either going to be given life in prison or I'm going to die. "When the stay came down I was happy for my family because I'm still here and that made them happy. Personally, I knew I was going back and would have to go through this whole process over again and I was a little disappointed." Asked what he would do if set free, Thomas listed three things. "The very first thing I would do would be to go to church, get down on my hands and knees and thank God because it would truly be a miracle. The second thing would be to try to put all this behind me and try to get some normalcy back in my life. Try to get a job. Try to do something positive -- maybe join the military for the discipline, the adventure, the traveling and the camaraderie." Thomas worked hard to create some normalcy in his life. He earned his GED and reestablished family ties, including with his estranged dad. "He read in the newspaper that I had gotten an execution date and he called the prison and he requested to speak with me," said Thomas. "I called back and we communicated back and forth on the telephone. "This past June when I came down to Greenville [for the execution] they allowed him to come back and visit me and that was the first time I had ever seen him in my life. It meant a great deal, because even though he wasn't there in the past, he did at least try and make an effort now." |