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  3. In the United States, 36 states currently allow capital punishment for serious crimes such as murder. Americans have always argu

In the United States, 36 states currently allow capital punishment for serious crimes such as murder. Americans have always argu

admin2011-03-26  59
问题     In the United States, 36 states currently allow capital punishment for serious crimes such as murder. Americans have always argued about the death penalty. Today, there is a serious question about this issue: Should there be a minimum age limit for executing criminals? In other words, is it right for convicted murderers who kill when they are minors--i, e. , under the age of 18--to receive the death penalty?
    In most other countries of the world, there is no capital punishment for minors. In the United States, though, each state makes its own decision. Of the 36 states that allow the death penalty, 30 permit the execution of minors.
    In the state of South Carolina, a convicted murderer was given the death penalty for a crime he committed while he was a minor. In 1977, when he was 17 years old, James Terry Roach and two friends brutally murdered three people. Roach’s lawyer fought the decision to execute him. The young murderer remained on Death Row (a separate part of prison for convicted criminals who are sentenced to death) for ten years while his lawyer appealed to the governor. The lawyer argued that it is wrong to execute a person for a crime he committed while he was a minor. In the United States, the governor of a state has the power to change a sentence from the death penalty to life in prison. Nonetheless, the governor of South Carolina refused to stop the execution. Roach was finally executed by electrocution in 1986. This is not the first time a criminal was executed in South Carolina for a crime he committed when he was a minor. In 1944, a 14-year-old boy died in that state’s electric chair.
    In Indiana, a 16-year-old girl was on Death Row for a crime she committed when she was 15. Paula Cooper and three friends stabbed an elderly woman to death in 1986. They robbed the old woman to get money to play video games. At the time of the murder, the minimum age limit for executions in that state was 10. Cooper’s lawyer appealed to the governor of Indiana to stop the execution because the convicted killer was very young and because she was abused in childhood. The Indiana governor, who favors the death penalty, said that he had to let the courts do their job.
Which of the following is true?
选项 A、All states in the U.S. allow the death penalty for serious crimes such as murder.
B、South Carolina does not allow capital punishment for minors.
C、the governor of a state can stop an execution.
D、Americans agree that it is wrong to execute convicted criminals who are minors.
答案C
解析 州长能够阻止执行死刑。根据第三段倒数第五句，州长有权把死刑改判为终生监禁。
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