The Mentally Handicapped on Death Row

On the white board in psychology the question of the day read, "If a severely mentally handicapped person commits murder, regardless of the severity of there handicap should they be put on death row?"  I have had the priveledge to grow up with two severely mentally handicap boys.  They are family friends and they both have the disorder called fragile x.  Even though i had the knowledge of these disorders i still thought most of the class would have the opinion i did. If a mentally handicapped person with the mentallity of a five year old kills somebody they obviously did not comprehend what they where doing.  Brandon, my family friend, is a lot stronger than me and his mother and some times he has panic attack and freaks out.  When this happens sometimes he hits people, but he does not understand what he has done till hours later.  Im not saying that there should not be severe consequences for murder, but death row for a mentally handicapped person is almost unthinkable.  They could be put in a home or a prison with the adequate tools to take care of them.  My whole class said that i was wrong.  I did not understand this one bit.  If a five year old little kid killed somebody they would not be sent to death row so why it is it different for a twenty year old mentally handicapped kid with the mentallity of a five year old?