Does that leave us free to assume you are an idiot?
If you think in this day and age that a 17-year-old is a child, you need to wake up, Pollyanna. In any case, the question of the death penalty has nothing to do with reform, redemption, or rehabilitation. It has to do with deterrence. It must be understood by all members of our society, whatever their age, that certain premeditated actions on their part will surely and swiftly result in the forfeiture of their lives. Furthermore, there is no better deterrence to individuals who have predilections in the direction of antisocial violence than to remove their sorry hides from the planet.
Our current moral and social predicament is a direct result of witless snivelers who somehow believe that order and discipline is too heavy a burden to bear. And, for your information, I am most certainly not an atheist. I have no love for the imposition of that ultimate cost on any other human. However, I cannot imagine living in a society where we have no recourse to remove these monsters from our midst.
It's just you and Somalia.
Once again, do you realize that you are talking about executing children?