The article contends that the debate over the retributive value of the death penalty for juveniles has mistakenly focused soley on whether such a punishment is cardinally proportional to the culpability of the juvenile offender. The author reasons that retributive justice also imposes an important, theoretically related requirement that punishments satisfy ordinal proportionality. A "bright line" prohibition of the death penalty for juveniles based on chronological age, argues the author, would violate ordinal proportionality. The author advises that the U.S. Supreme Court, in the pending death penalty cases involving juveniles, should reject a "bright line" approach in favor of either retaining the current discretionary sentencing system or adopting a set of rebuttable presumptions with respect to the murderer's age. 769 footnotes. (Publisher summary modified)