China, Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Not the best company to keep.

Now, thanks to the Supreme Court, the United States doesn’t belong on the list of countries that apply the death penalty to juvenile criminals.

Last week, the court narrowed the permissibility of the death penalty, prohibiting the sentence for people convicted of crimes committed before their 18th birthday.

The 5-4 decision will bar 19 states, which currently allow the execution of young offenders, from going forward with the punishment and move 72 people off of death row.

The decision should be welcomed. Research, often cited by everyone from insurance companies to high school coaches, shows that the maturity and mental capacity of young teenagers are not developed enough to expect them to always act with the same level of culpability as adults. As a society, we don’t allow them to drink, join the military, vote, smoke or serve on a jury. But, for some reason, we have allowed them to be executed as if they were adults.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, representing the majority, wrote: “From a moral standpoint, it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor’s character deficiencies will be reformed.”

In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that executing young offenders was OK. Last week’s ruling acknowledges the “evolving standards” of the country in the application of the Eighth Amendment and overturns the precedent. According to the justices who voted for the prohibition, the tide has turned, and the prevailing sentiment against the practice makes it cruel and unusual.

The court got this one right.