The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. The decision threw out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and barred states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes. The states that allowed capital punishment for 16- and 17-year-olds were: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia. More than 200 juvenile death sentences had been imposed by U.S. courts since 1973. Nearly two-thirds of modern executions of juvenile offenders have taken place in Texas. The youngest American put to death in modern times was a 14-year-old executed in South Carolina in 1944. George Junius Stinney was black and was convicted of murdering two white girls with a railroad spike.