Political Science: Reasons for the Death Penalty and eligibility

Final Exam
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PART I
Reasons for the Death Penalty and eligibility
The death penalty is one of the criminal punishments that have received love and hate in equal measure. The states that apply it usually applies do for retribution, for deterrence of crime, rehabilitation of criminals, and prevention of offending. However, the death penalty applies only to offenders above 18 years old (Derrida, 2013). This is according to Article 6 (5) of the human rights doctrine that reserves the right to execute juvenile offenders.
Constitutionality of Discriminatory Laws
The American death penalty is one of the discriminate laws that exempt offenders that committed the crime under the age of 18 because the laws regard them as juveniles whose brains are not fully developed and without sound reasoning and responsible choices. And courts only use this exemption if the crime was committed while the offender was below 18 years (Steicker, 2012). Electoral laws are also discriminate since only those above 18 years are eligible to vote because they are regarded to be mature and can make decisions unlike the under 18-year-old persons (Ansolabehere, 2012).
Limits to Voter Registration Discretion
During voter registration exercises in the USA, persons under 18 years are not eligible to be registered to vote because they are people who cannot make responsible choices. Also, non-citizens of the country like the immigrant and undocumented persons are not eligible to vote because they are not legally permitted to do so ((Ansolabehere, 2012).
PART II
Methods of interpreting the constitution
The three methods of interpreting the constitution to resolve disputes are pragmatism, textualism, and moral reasoning. Approaches like moral reasoning deal more with the moral and ethical standing of people and can either interpret the law according to the religious, ethical, and historical beliefs. So the interpretation may be favorable or unfavorable depending on the inclination which is not uniform to law. Textualism and judicial precedent are laws that are written like the Universal Declaration of human rights and the American constitution which are laws that are not inclined to any religion, ethnicity o...