I am personally opposed to the death penalty under any circumstance however I think it is unfortunate that some self-proclaimed "human rights" groups are using the issue as a pretext to promote a political agenda of regime change.
While it certainly is true that Iran executes individuals whose crimes were committed when they were 16 or 17 years old (since under Islamic law you have to be 15 or older to be held criminally responsible for your actions), and this is a terrible thing in my opinion, lets remember one fact.
It is only relatively recently that the US stopped doing the same thing. In fact, until 2004, the US had the distinction of leading the world in the number of executions of juvenile offenders. Texas was particularly quite keen on it!
Most Americans (and more non-Americans) are no doubt surprised to learn that it was only in 2005 that the Supreme Court of the United States (in a very narrow 5-4 decision) abolished the practice. At that time, there were 22 such executions in the US, and 78 other juvenile offenders were awaiting their deaths.
I sincerely and fervently hope that the entire death penalty and other such idiotic practices will be eliminated from Iran as well as the rest of the world, even though the death penalty typically has strong popular support.
My opposition to the death penalty is based on many considerations, but in particular it seems to me that if you're going to impose the "ultimate penalty" you should only have the right to to so if you can also impose the "ultimate justice system" -- and no one can.
And let me pre-empt the usual argument that comes my way: "Would you prefer the killer of your mother or child to go free?" First of all, I never said they should "go free" and secondly, I would probably want to kill them myself, but there's a distinction between pointless personal revenge and justice.
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