The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area Carolina, one in Alabama, one in Arizona, two in Ohio, two in Indiana, one in Tennessee, and one in South Dakota. International Safeguards Pregnant women and minors Pregnant women cannot be executed under federal or state law. At the federal level, individuals who were below the age of 18 at the time of the crime cannot be sentenced to death.108 On 1 March 2005, the United States Supreme Court took a decision to abolish the death penalty for defendants who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes.109 In Roper v. Simmons, the Supreme Court held that the execution of minors constitutes cruel and unusual punishment within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. The Court found that a national consensus had emerged that such executions are a disproportionate punishment for juveniles, whom society views as categorically less culpable than adult criminals. In July 2006, after having considered the second and third periodic reports submitted by the United States, the UN Human Rights Committee noted with concern reports that 42 states and the federal government had laws allowing individuals under the age of 18 at the time the offence was committed to receive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole, and that some 2,225 youth offenders were serving such sentences in US prisons. The Committee found that sentencing children to life sentences without the possibility of parole was not in compliance with Article 24 (1) of the ICCPR (provision on the protection of children).110 Individuals suffering from any form of mental disorder The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the execution of an insane person – somebody who is not aware of the impending execution or the reasons for it – violates the US Constitution.111 Furthermore, the Supreme Court has also ruled that the execution of a mentally retarded person violates the Constitution.112 The American Association of Mental Retardation defines mental retardation as substantial intellectual impairment appearing at birth or during childhood that impacts on the everyday 108  18 U.S.C. § 3591(a)(2)(D), 18 U.S.C. § 3591 (b)(2). 109  Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. (2005). 110  Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: United States of America, advance unedited version, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/USA/Q/3/CRP.4, 27 July 2006, para. 34. 111  Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986). 112  Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. (2002). 35