UPI Legal Affairs Correspondent Michael Kirkland writes about the real reason America uses the death penalty in On Law: Execution as revenge.

The focus of his article is the execution of juvenile offenders. He ponders why America still allows it. For what purpose ?

38 states in the U.S. allow the death penalty. Of those, only 16 require that the minimum age of the offender at the time of the crime be 18. That leaves 22 states that allow kids who were 16 and 17 at the time of their crimes to be put to death.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 21 men have been put to death for crimes they committed as juveniles.

The only other countries that allow the execution of juvenile offenders are Islamic countries.

Kirkland makes the key point:

"But as a nation we are swiftly reaching the point at which we may have to ask ourselves: Do we really want take the ultimate revenge against people who did some truly brutal things when they weren't adults?"

"Are these adult death row inmates even the same people they were when they were teenagers? Is anybody? Are you?"