Eulogy: SEAN SELLERS

Last week the state of Oklahoma killed SEAN SELLERS. He was the first person in 40 years executed for a crime committed at age 16, and the 10th juvenile offender executed in the U.S. this decade, more than in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Iran–the only other countries that are known to execute child offenders–combined.

Not only was he a child offender; Sean also suffered from a mental disorder. He was tried for three murders that took place in 1985 and ’86: his mother Vonda, his stepfather Paul Bellofatto and Robert Bower. At trial, the jury was unaware that he suffered from multiple-personality disorder. Three mental-health experts established that Sean had severe brain damage as a result of an injury as a child. The U.S. Court of Appeal, noting that M.P.D. was “virtually unknown at the time of Sellers’ trial,” stated that his “illness is such that he may be able to prove his factual innocence.” But the federal court couldn’t overturn the state judgment.

Sean expressed deep remorse about his crime. He ministered to thousands of teenagers to help them find the right path. His execution denies the possibility that a person–a child of 16–can be rehabilitated and redeemed. It is the potential for change and redemption that motivates us all to be better people. Killing the light of that redemption in Sean has killed some of that light in all of us.

–By Bianca Jagger