ly the age of a ten-year-old then he should not be sentenced to death.The supporters of the death penalty think that the death penalty is used for good reason. One of those reasons is to deter other juveniles from trying to do the same crime. Another reason is the punishment fits the crime. In addition the death penalty is not cruel because the individual laying on the gurney waiting for the lethal injection feels nothing do to sedatives and painkillers. Another reason is that the world and the United States have been executing individuals since the beginning of time.Another approach to debating the death penalty issue and the lowering of the age limit is buy using mental capacity test. For example, in the case of Michael Dominguez, convicted in 1994 for the murder of his next door neighbor and her four-year-old son in their home in March 1993 (Landau). The court took in account Michael Domingues was in his right mind and was mentally capable of doing such a horrible crime as double murder. The standard for the judicial system to follow is based on the individual’s mental age. For example, a five year old does not know or understand the weapon in his hand could fire and kill someone but a four teen year old knows that it can. A seventeen - year - old, Douglas Christopher was sentenced to death in Virginia, because he shot and killed his girlfriends (Jessica Wiseman’s) parents. Wiseman’s parents forbade them to have any personal relations and that was the reason that both of them thought of killing the parents. Douglas Christopher was sentenced to death and Jessica was sentenced to juvenile detention. They both should have been sentenced to death because they both knew what they were doing and the consequences of their actions.As the rate of juvenile murderers increase, the number of juveniles on death row should rise also. As the age for juveniles that can be sentenced to death been set too high for today’ times....
