What a great way to begin the week! The Supreme Court has agreed to revisit the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty.

The justices agreed to return to the juvenile death penalty question after the Missouri Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to execute those who were 16 or 17 at the time of their crime.

The state's top court based its reasoning partly on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that a national consensus had emerged to declare unconstitutional executions of criminals who are mentally retarded. In 1988, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the executions of offenders age 15 or younger at the time of their crimes.

But the next year the high court ruled that state executions of those who commit their crimes at age 16 or 17 do not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

It's time for this barbaric practice to go.

Update: The Virginia Assembly will also revisit the death penalty, including the issue of juvenile death penalties.