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in the News |
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INTRO | |
Douglas
Thomas was executed in Virginia, America, for a crime he committed
as a juvenile. Defenders of human rights criticised the execution,
claiming that America is out-of-step with the rest of the world.
The BBC's
US correspondent in the US, Stephen Sakur, reported. |
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IN
FULL | |
 | Listen
to the report in full |
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13th
January 2000
Capital punishment in the US
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| NEWS
1 | | | Listen
to the first part of the report |
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When
he was seventeen years old Douglas Thomas shot his fourteen year old
girlfriend’s parents while they were sleeping. Last night Thomas was
executed by lethal injection. Before being taken to the execution
chamber he acknowledged that he deserved punishment, but he said
it was unfair that he was paying the ultimate price while his
co-defendant, his girlfriend, who was charged as a juvenile,
had the chance of a normal life. |
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WORDS | |
lethal: something that can kill
people
injection: a means of getting a drug into a person by using
a syringe
execution chamber: a room in
which criminals are put to death
ultimate price: here, the most
powerful penalty that a judge can use - death
co-defendant: "co-" is used
to form words meaning that someone does something with someone else.
A defendant is the person accused of a crime in a trial: Douglas
Thomas's girlfriend was accused with him
juvenile: a child or young person
who is not yet old enough to be regarded as an adult by the Law
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| NEWS
2 | | | Listen
to the second part of the report |
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Opponents
of the death penalty say America is out-of-step with
the whole of the rest of the world. The US signed an International
Charter prohibiting the execution of juveniles
more than twenty years ago. But Congress insisted on an exclusion
clause for seventeen-year-olds. The general public seems generally
unmoved by the controversy. Only a handful of protesters
gathered outside the prison where Douglas Thomas was executed.
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| WORDS | |
death penalty: the punishment
of death, used in some countries for people who have committed very
serious crimes
out-of-step: not keeping in
line with
Charter: a charter is a document describing the rights or
principles of a group or organisation
prohibiting: not allowing
exclusion clause: a section
of a legal document which makes an overall rule not apply to a particular
person or group of people. In America juveniles are not allowed
to be executed for any crimes they have committed. Congress has
brought in a clause so that this rule does not apply to 17 year
olds, only to those aged 16 or under
controversy: a disagreement about something that many people
do not approve of which often leads to a lot of discussion and argument
handful: a
small quantity of something
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