I don't agree with the death penalty, no matter who is doing it but let's look at some American facts here.
Here's an article that was written in 1998 in regards to America's court system. Have fun.
In the last twenty years, more than 150 children have been sentenced to death in the United States.
Out of the few countries whose laws provide for execution for crimes that people commit as children, the United States has carried out more of these
executions than any of the others.
All states have provisions for prosecuting children as young as 14 in courts of law as adults. Many states are steadily lowering the age that children
can be tried as adults. In some states this could be the case for children as young as 10 years old.
mmmhmmm, and who believes that a ten year old should be tried as an adult? Oh yeah, OBVIOUSLY Americans used to.
In 2005, the Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death penalty for juveniles. 22 defendants had been executed for crimes committed as
juveniles since 1976.
According to a survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies, 84% of these experts rejected the
notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.
The 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that the South had the highest murder rate. The South accounts for over 80% of executions. The Northeast,
which has less than 1% of all executions, again had the lowest murder rate.
The United States also has a history of using the death penalty even when the person is "mentally disabled" (retardation).
Finally Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling ending the execution of those with mental retardation. In Atkins v. Virginia, the Court held that it is
a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel unusual punishment to execute death row inmates with mental retardation. The decision reflects the
national consensus which has formed on this issue.
"outside source for info" www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...


