[originaltext] In the United States, 36 states currently allow capital punis

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—that is, 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 cruelly murdered three people. Roach’s lawyer fought the decision to execute him. The young murderer remained on Death Row 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 in 1986.
23. What does the speaker say about the death penalty in the United States?
24. What is the focus of the debate around the death penalty?
25. What does the speaker say about James Terry Roach?