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Jordan McCullough

Ms. Gandy

English II-1

9 February 2011

Title

"Death is real, irreversible, and awful. Do you want some advice? Don't wait until you're
dead to try to communicate. Do it now. You still have a chance. Not a great one, but a better one
than you will have. If you think it's hard to get your point across now, and that no one really
understands what you're about, just try it when you're dead."(Alexander Jablokov) Death is a
common theme in life (ironically). There are sayings such as ³You scared me to death!´ or
³Nothing is certain but death and taxes.´ That all seem to portray death as a commonplace term
that can be freely used in conversation. The truth is, Death is an irreversible event that is the
ending of life. In the United States some states use Capital Punishment, also known as the Death
penalty, to punish a criminal for his/her wrongdoings. In some cases Capital Punishment is used
on minors, persons under the age of eighteen. Minors should not have to face the death penalty
for a number of reasons. One reason is that minor¶s brain is not fully developed, thus interfering
with decision making and use of reason. Another reason is that Death is final. Death cannot be
undone or reversed. The fact that a minor¶s reasoning skills and use of logic is not fully
developed yet, and if Capital Punishment is something that cannot be undone, leaves too much or
a margin for error.

Minors should not be subject to the same type of treatment that an adult would receive
because of the fact that their brains have not fully developed yet. ³The prefrontal cortex, which
governs the executive functions of reasoning, advanced thought, and impulse control, is the final
area of the human brain to mature.´(Act4JJ) Since the brain is not fully developed in is unjust to
give a minor a punishment fit for someone whose brain is fully developed. ³The prefrontal cortex
is not fully developed until the person reaches 25 years of age.´ (Act4JJ) The fact that
Adolescents must rely heavily on parts of the brain that house the emotional centers when
making decisions, because the frontal regions of their brain are not fully developed. Making
decisions based on emotional responses can lead to overreacting which can in turn cause loss of
control. If someone loses control in a serious situation, the consequences could be devastating.
Emotional responses aren¶t always logical or rational; therefore the decisions made by an
Adolescent aren¶t always going to be rational or logical.

Death is Final. If the convicted was found to be innocent Y
 the execution, the state
where the execution was preformed could be held accountable. ³The cost of keeping an inmate in
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prison is $55.09 a day on average per day, or $20,108 per year. (Florida Corrections) While this
is a large sum of money to keep someone who has committed such heinous crimes alive, the cost
of losing a lawsuit because an innocent person was executed could exceed the cost of keeping
them in prison by far. In the early 1990¶s California had little money for community policing, but
was able to spend $90 million annually on Capital Punishment. While $20,108 per year is a large
amount of money, $90 million exceeds that amount substantially.