Can you imagine getting the death penalty at the age of 16, especially if you are innocent. These things happen in our courts and it is an embarrassment to our country. Capital punishment is, in many ways, a miscarriage of justice. It is wrong to execute people who may be innocent. It is wrong to execute people who are victims of discrimination.
             A major problem with the death penalty is the expenses. It costs 3.1 million dollars in taxes for every execution. The people of the US , whether they agree with this ultimate punishment or not, are paying for it.
             Racism is a factor in too many cases. It has been shown that an African American is 6 times more likely to get the death penalty than a white person. Since 1976 only 10 whites have been executed for killing an African American.
             Texas law allows for the execution of people with mental retardation, a condition indicated by an IQ of 70 or below. The state of Louisiana went to the Supreme Court to get permission to medicate David Owen Perry, who is severely mentally ill long enough for them to execute him.
             Juvenile offenders are being executed also. International law prohibits the execution of people who were under 18 at the time of the crime but still the US does this. The only other countries that have carried out juvenile executions in the last 10 years have been Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The US should be more civilized than these third world countries but it is obviously not. There have been 13 executions of juvenile offenders in Texas and 26 juveniles on death row. The government should not be giving up on its youth that easily. Killing kids for mistakes they make when they have their whole lives ahead of them cannot be justified. The problem is getting worse. In June 1989 the Supreme Court ruled the execution of offenders as young as 16 was permissible.
             There is also problems with innocent death sentence victims. A study covering 1900 to 1985 showed 35
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