By Alabama Public Radio
Washington, DC – Alabama is among 19 states that execute death row inmates who committed their crimes when they were either 16 or 17 years old. That issue, and its legality, is before the U-S Supreme Court. Former president Jimmy Carter, former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev, the American Medical Association and 48 nations planned to file a friend-of-the-court brief Monday. They're lobbying against executing inmates who committed their crimes before the age of 18. The U-S allows it, and Supreme Court justices will reconsider this fall whether such executions are constitutional. The case comes from Missouri.