(c) The overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty is not controlling here, but provides respected and significant confirmation for the Court's determination that the penalty is disproportionate punishment for offenders under 18. See, e. g., Thompson, supra, at 830-831, and n. 31. The United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile penalty. It does not lessen fidelity to the Constitution or pride in its origins to acknowledge that the express affirmation of certain fundamental rights by other nations and peoples underscores the centrality of those same rights within our own heritage of freedom. Pp. 575-578. 112 S. W. 3d 397, affirmed. Kennedy, J., delivered  the  opinion of the Court.

Now here is the bouncing plea OTTE v. THE STATE OF OHIO from the US Supreme Court back to the tribal and indigenous lands of Cuyahoga County. Otte's post-conviction "appeal" to unconstitutionality of the penalty seeks a remedy which cannot be found without review of finding of facts, exculputory evidence, that exonerate him.

(ii) that the applicant was convicted under a statute that is in violation of the Constitution of the United States or the constitution of the state in which judgment was rendered, or that the conduct for which the applicant was prosecuted is constitutionally protected;

Otte maintains in principle that he would have been a protected class of convict, if at that time (1992) Roper had proscribed capital punishment for persons age 18 and younger in Ohio and scientific research subsequently admitted as in the decision Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Bredhold (1 Aug 2017) had been available in his own defense.

Dr. Benedict found that Mr. Bredhold was about four years behind his peer group in multiple capacities.

Otte appeals to "a national consensus against executing offenders under the age of twenty-one" to make clear objective indicia (notwithstanding custom and usage in Texas) that the death penalty is disproportionate punishment for offenders younger than 21 years old. That it is socially unacceptable. He is after all represented by federal public defenders.

Finally, Otte's prayer for relief depends on reversing time. After Chapman v. California, US standards for retroactive application of changes in constitutional law are narrowest when defendants convicted or sentenced have already exhausted a habeas proceeding, and it can "be said with relative assurance that [errors] had no effect on the ultimate verdict." For Otte was also convicted of additional substantive crimes, evoking instructions in McNeill v. United States which may well presume he alone is irredeemable.

He is scheduled to die 13 Sept 2017.


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