No Choirboy Post 4

The next chapter in No Choirboy is an interview with the brother and mother of Napoleon Beazley, who was a seventeen-year-old boy that was executed for killing the father of a federal judge. This case sparked national debate whether sentencing kids under the age of 18 was right. Napoleon was known as a great kid in his town. He was the class president, captain of the football team, and a very popular guy. Everybody seemed to like him. Is it right to have a kid who is seventeen sentenced to death for one bad mistake he or she has made?

I know that minors can no longer be charged capital punishment but this scenario with Napoleon got me thinking. I am against the death penalty by all means but I tired to put myself in a position where I was for the death penalty. Then I thought about whether minors should be sentenced to death or not. I put a lot of thought into this and it was really hard to make a decision. I keep thinking that everybody, regardless of age, should be responsible for his or her decision. The other side of me kept saying that kids brains are not 100% developed and because of their immaturity, they can be at fault for making bad decisions.  That side of me definitely won. Teenagers make bad decisions, it is part of their nature, but no decision can be bad enough to have them sentenced to death.