At 20, Marion Bowman was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Kandee Martin, a crime for which he maintains his innocence. Now at 44, he is the “fifth Black prisoner South Carolina would put to death for a crime committed under the age of 21 - compared to just one white prisoner,” reports the Death Penalty Information Center. The disproportionate rate at which young Black men are sentenced to death becomes more troubling as recent neuropsychological research finds that young adults aged 18 to 20 have the same deficits in critical thinking and impulse control as juveniles. In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the United States Supreme Court prohibited the death penalty for those under the age of 18. In Mr. Bowman’s case, the adultification of Black youth may also have influenced his sentencing, with the Death Penalty Information Center citing CPE’s blog post on the phenomenon:
The “adultification” of Black youth has been demonstrated in virtually every facet of the criminal legal system. According to the Center for Policing Equity, “the period of time during which White youth are not expected to be fully responsible for their actions can extend well into their late 20s,” while “Black children are often treated as adults by age 13, if not well before, regularly perceived as older, less innocent, and more threatening than their White same-age peers.” Black children make up 15% of the youth population but half of elementary school arrests and half of transfers to adult court. They are also five times more likely to be committed to juvenile facilities. In a capital case, these racial biases may manifest in prosecutors offering plea deals and leniency to young white offenders while seeking death for young Black offenders even when the facts of the cases are similar.
Read the full blog post on the Death Penalty Information Center’s website.