Tuesday, May 8, 2007
My last Blog
This is my 5ht and final blog of the semester. Im going to miss blogger! I just finished up my self-assessment essay and it was probably the easiest one to write. I like reflecting on what i learned all sememester. The annotated bibliographies were probably the hardest assignment of the semester by far. Oh yeah and ill post my final essay on capital punishment when i finish this post.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Blogger Fun
wow I didnt think posting all these bloggs would be this fun. I can pretty much talk about whatever i want. Well school is almost over and lets hope all of our class presentations go well. I excited to see what all of you have for next week.
Visual?
Right now im doing work on my visual arguemnt. I cant really seem to find anything interesting for my presentation. Capital Punishment seems like it would be easy to present on but its has to very different approaches so its hard to share both sides. Progress is coming along so i will keep it updated.
Annotated Bib Opinion
So how did everyone like doing the Annotated Bibs? they were harder than they seemed! I probably spent most of time doing these bibliographys than writing a normal essay, they were definitly alot of hard work. Was it worth it? for the most part yes i think they were because they allowed me to actually find out how reliable and trueful some of the sources really are.
Posting it All
well everyone as you can see I have just posted all of my essays at one time. Yeah i know they were due along time ago but it was hard getting all of this blogger stuff together with baseball everyday i guess. Today is our last day and i didnt have class so i decided to come to school early and work on homework for 4 hours. Well I hope everyone has a good day and here are a few interesting essays if you want to read them.
Capital Punishment (essay 4)
Will Armijo
English 102
Matthew Jolly
April 27, 2007
Capital Punishment
Today the United States is the only Western Industrialized nation that continues to use capital Punishment as a penalty for violating criminal law, executing on average 75 people per year. Is this type of punishment unjust or unmoral? Considering this is the most controversial act in the modern word, nations and states are making numerous attempts to abolish it. Capital Punishment has been practice for as long ago as we can remember. Today hundreds of people, half innocent, are being executed each year. We ask ourselves why? Is the death penalty really deteriorating crime rate and benefiting our society? How is killing one person going to solve a problem or crime that has already been committed? All of these questions can be answered but some people don’t want them to be because they think killing someone is the easy way out. Let’s take a deeper look into the reality and brutality of Capital Punishment itself and open the doors to new solutions.
A long time ago, back when executions were very popular in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, they were typical because once someone was executed they were never to be worried about again. Some typical types of executions were crucifixion, stoning, drowning, burning, hanging, and beheading. Let’s jump ahead a few centuries; in the late 18th century all murders in the US were punishable by death (Anderson 76). The murder was divided into two categories, first degree and second degree. First degree was allowed execution and second degree was only allowed imprisonment. This was just a stab at the attempts to abolish Capital Punishment. States and countries then began to replace the death penalty with a life sentence but keeping the death penalty legal. Although many states began to limit numbers of executions, no government had formally abolished it until Michigan did in 1846. Within the next 20 years Venezuela and Portugal had eliminated the death penalty and from then on it was a domino effect. After World War II and the break up of the Soviet Union, a burst of countries were able to abolish the death penalty. The Unites States was not one of them.
Capital Punishment in the United States is primarily a matter of state law and practice because it is a federal system of government. Federal law provides the death penalty for more than 40 crimes (Official Bureau 17). Each state chooses its own criminal penalties and they are responsible for defining their crimes, this also holds true for their say so on the executions. Only twelve states do not have a death penalty. All other 38 states provide some sort of punishment by death, including murder, drug trafficking, hijacking, treason, and sexual assault. However, for the past 15 years all persons sentenced to the death penalty have been convicted of some form of murder (Kerrigan 25). Although in the 1972 decision of Furman v. Georgia the Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment to allow a jury to decide whether a convict be sentenced to death or imprisoned for life, this invalidated every state death penalty statue and an official moratorium on executions was initiated that year until 1976.
The controversy and debate over whether government should utilize the death penalty continues today because unlike the US other Eastern counties began to emphasize the worth of the individual and realize how unjust the practice is. Capital Punishment is brutal and degrading, while some people consider it a necessary form of retributions for terrible crimes. People think that by killing convicts they are deterring crime. Killing is a crime itself. Killing people is just abusing government power, it’s not necessary at all.
Since 1976 more than 900 executions have taken place in the United States( Official Bureau 130). Most executions are conducted in the southern states (two-thirds). In 2003 Texas and Oklahoma put to death 38 prisoners combined. Every year in the US juries sentence between 200 and 300 criminals to death. Yet this far exceeds the number of executions that take place due to a long delay period. In 2003, 3,400 prisoners were under death sentence in the United States alone. When executions do happen in the United Sates they usually happen a decade or more after the prisoner has been convicted. Most of the time its due to legal appeals that must be finished before they can actually execute the person. Another reason is called “exhaustion of remedies’ meaning the court has time to go over errors in their court before the federal court steps in (Lawry 56). This gap between execution and sentencing frustrates supporters of capital punishment because they want them killed right away, but why? The prisoner is doing no harm in jail so why should they be killed? If anything, why not council and try to help them while keeping them imprisoned?
Let’s step into the brutality of the act taking place. Did you ever think executions are still just a public spectacle for a government to get money? They were back when hanging and electrocuting was around. Yeah times have changed but the government is always looking for ways of displaying its power. Every aspect of execution is brutal in all sense, it doesn’t matter if it’s by lethal injection or chemical gas, it is all unjust and inhumane. Although supports see nothing wrong with government’s deliberately killing terrible people who commit crimes, they are blind to the fact that is degrading and immoral to the individual and humanity itself.
Social scientists have collected statistical data on trends in homicide before and after abolishment of capital punishment in certain states. Statistics show that presence or absence of capital punishment or executions does not visibly influence the rate of homicide. With this in mind, why is capital punishment even necessary and why do we continue to use it? Since the late 70’s more than 100 people sentenced to death have been exonerated (found innocent) (CQ Researcher 17). There is not doubt that many other inmates on death row are innocent but most of them will run out of time and be executed before then. Two governors since 2003 have completely cleared their death row and are looking for ways at abolishing capital punishment. There will be no end to the madness unless we just stop executing all together. Capital Punishment is only causing more problems, not only is it immoral and inhumane but our government is not only killing people but killing innocent people as well. Once again it’s just a show of power not a matter of life.
English 102
Matthew Jolly
April 27, 2007
Capital Punishment
Today the United States is the only Western Industrialized nation that continues to use capital Punishment as a penalty for violating criminal law, executing on average 75 people per year. Is this type of punishment unjust or unmoral? Considering this is the most controversial act in the modern word, nations and states are making numerous attempts to abolish it. Capital Punishment has been practice for as long ago as we can remember. Today hundreds of people, half innocent, are being executed each year. We ask ourselves why? Is the death penalty really deteriorating crime rate and benefiting our society? How is killing one person going to solve a problem or crime that has already been committed? All of these questions can be answered but some people don’t want them to be because they think killing someone is the easy way out. Let’s take a deeper look into the reality and brutality of Capital Punishment itself and open the doors to new solutions.
A long time ago, back when executions were very popular in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, they were typical because once someone was executed they were never to be worried about again. Some typical types of executions were crucifixion, stoning, drowning, burning, hanging, and beheading. Let’s jump ahead a few centuries; in the late 18th century all murders in the US were punishable by death (Anderson 76). The murder was divided into two categories, first degree and second degree. First degree was allowed execution and second degree was only allowed imprisonment. This was just a stab at the attempts to abolish Capital Punishment. States and countries then began to replace the death penalty with a life sentence but keeping the death penalty legal. Although many states began to limit numbers of executions, no government had formally abolished it until Michigan did in 1846. Within the next 20 years Venezuela and Portugal had eliminated the death penalty and from then on it was a domino effect. After World War II and the break up of the Soviet Union, a burst of countries were able to abolish the death penalty. The Unites States was not one of them.
Capital Punishment in the United States is primarily a matter of state law and practice because it is a federal system of government. Federal law provides the death penalty for more than 40 crimes (Official Bureau 17). Each state chooses its own criminal penalties and they are responsible for defining their crimes, this also holds true for their say so on the executions. Only twelve states do not have a death penalty. All other 38 states provide some sort of punishment by death, including murder, drug trafficking, hijacking, treason, and sexual assault. However, for the past 15 years all persons sentenced to the death penalty have been convicted of some form of murder (Kerrigan 25). Although in the 1972 decision of Furman v. Georgia the Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment to allow a jury to decide whether a convict be sentenced to death or imprisoned for life, this invalidated every state death penalty statue and an official moratorium on executions was initiated that year until 1976.
The controversy and debate over whether government should utilize the death penalty continues today because unlike the US other Eastern counties began to emphasize the worth of the individual and realize how unjust the practice is. Capital Punishment is brutal and degrading, while some people consider it a necessary form of retributions for terrible crimes. People think that by killing convicts they are deterring crime. Killing is a crime itself. Killing people is just abusing government power, it’s not necessary at all.
Since 1976 more than 900 executions have taken place in the United States( Official Bureau 130). Most executions are conducted in the southern states (two-thirds). In 2003 Texas and Oklahoma put to death 38 prisoners combined. Every year in the US juries sentence between 200 and 300 criminals to death. Yet this far exceeds the number of executions that take place due to a long delay period. In 2003, 3,400 prisoners were under death sentence in the United States alone. When executions do happen in the United Sates they usually happen a decade or more after the prisoner has been convicted. Most of the time its due to legal appeals that must be finished before they can actually execute the person. Another reason is called “exhaustion of remedies’ meaning the court has time to go over errors in their court before the federal court steps in (Lawry 56). This gap between execution and sentencing frustrates supporters of capital punishment because they want them killed right away, but why? The prisoner is doing no harm in jail so why should they be killed? If anything, why not council and try to help them while keeping them imprisoned?
Let’s step into the brutality of the act taking place. Did you ever think executions are still just a public spectacle for a government to get money? They were back when hanging and electrocuting was around. Yeah times have changed but the government is always looking for ways of displaying its power. Every aspect of execution is brutal in all sense, it doesn’t matter if it’s by lethal injection or chemical gas, it is all unjust and inhumane. Although supports see nothing wrong with government’s deliberately killing terrible people who commit crimes, they are blind to the fact that is degrading and immoral to the individual and humanity itself.
Social scientists have collected statistical data on trends in homicide before and after abolishment of capital punishment in certain states. Statistics show that presence or absence of capital punishment or executions does not visibly influence the rate of homicide. With this in mind, why is capital punishment even necessary and why do we continue to use it? Since the late 70’s more than 100 people sentenced to death have been exonerated (found innocent) (CQ Researcher 17). There is not doubt that many other inmates on death row are innocent but most of them will run out of time and be executed before then. Two governors since 2003 have completely cleared their death row and are looking for ways at abolishing capital punishment. There will be no end to the madness unless we just stop executing all together. Capital Punishment is only causing more problems, not only is it immoral and inhumane but our government is not only killing people but killing innocent people as well. Once again it’s just a show of power not a matter of life.
Annotated Bibliography (assignment 3)
Annotated Bibliography
Capital Punishment
Official Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2006. February 2007. www.antideathpenalty.org
This online resource is statistically based from the Bureau of Justice. They also state the number of executions by state and by year. The article also states executions of different countries and years they had executions. The people listed to be executed and have for some reason not been executed or freed are also listed. The article shows mostly how the execution rate is decreasing because the website is against capital punishment. The articles are based on statistics so there is no opinion on the article except that they have very useful facts on capital punishment. All this information is authored by the government so it is 100% reliable.
Arnold, Glenn.The International Perspective. October 31, 2004. www.suite101.com/article.cfm
Glenn Arnold is a member of the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and strictly a writer. He has published many different articles concerning the Death Penalty in many different magazines. His article states facts about the Death Penalty and does not state a certain side he is on. The article lets the reader decide their own opinion on the subject. Expect to obtain information concerning countries and states that are for and against the punishment. As a reader you will began to understand the reasoning for the death penalty and reasoning why the death penalty seems to be worthless. The article exposed the reality of the subject and is very useful for an understanding and overview of the death penalty.
Anderson, Kerby. Capital Punishment. August 5, 2003. Probe Ministries.
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/cap-pun.html
Kerby Anderson is the President of Probe Ministries. He is a nationally syndicated columnist and has published several books. This article is based on the religious outlook towards the death penalty. Expect to read examples and reasoning from the old and new testaments of the bible. At the end of the article he will discuss discrimination and objections towards capital punishment. This is a Very broad overview of oppositions against the punishment and a very reliable source if you are looking for moral reasons against Capital Punishment.
CQ Researcher. Rethinking the Death Penalty. November 16, 2001. Volume 11, Number 40.
http://Library.cqupress.com/cqresearcher/document.php
This is a very reliable resource because it allows you to view a full report, overview, background, current situations, outlook, pros/cons, and bibliography about capital punishment. The report starts out with a story of a mental patient faced with capital punishment and what ends up happening to him. Then reveals the publics viewpoint and shows visual graphs and statistics supporting their claim. There is no support towards or against the subject, mostly just facts are shown throughout the report. The general overview seemed to be most useful for my research on the topic.
Sarat, Austin. The Killing State. Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press 1999.
Austin Sarat is a Professor of Political Science and Amherst College. He is the author and editor of 20 books and president of the Law and Society Association. Every aspect of Capital Punishment is examined through out this book. He looks and a lot of the moral aspects of capital punishment and the rate of killings each year. Killings by the state is deeply revealed and exposed through out the chapters. He also explains how this type of punishment affects our culture.
Marzilli, Alan. Capital Punishment. Chelsea House Publishers. Phiadelphia 2003.
Marzilli is a consultant for several non-profit organizations and well known spokesperson for mental health issues all over the world. This short book explains the Death Penalty as and effective Deterrent to Crime. Counterpoints how it is already too easy to convict and execute people. He also points out how capital punishment is applied unfairly. He also explains how capital punishment could be in the future of America. I found this as a good source for an opinion on Capital Punishment. It has very good social reasoning concerning the topic of capital punishment and I found it useful for a social standpoint.
Kerrigan, Michael. Death Row and Capital Punishment. Crime and Detection. Manson Crest Publishers 2005.
Michael Kerrigan is a long time journalist and studied at Oxford and Princeton. This book is very easy to understand and read. All the pictures help reveal the truth about Capital Punishment and the effects it has on the people. I liked the book starts off with the history of Capital Punishment dating back to the roman times and how it is used today. Expect to read about the American tradition of the death penalty and how it is used in detail. Then the death penalty world wide is explained but in not so much detail. At the end of the book he will talk about the protestors towards the death penalty and give reliable insight on to how he obtained the information. I really liked how it was very easy to understand and didn’t leave me with any questions.
Capital Punishment
Official Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2006. February 2007. www.antideathpenalty.org
This online resource is statistically based from the Bureau of Justice. They also state the number of executions by state and by year. The article also states executions of different countries and years they had executions. The people listed to be executed and have for some reason not been executed or freed are also listed. The article shows mostly how the execution rate is decreasing because the website is against capital punishment. The articles are based on statistics so there is no opinion on the article except that they have very useful facts on capital punishment. All this information is authored by the government so it is 100% reliable.
Arnold, Glenn.The International Perspective. October 31, 2004. www.suite101.com/article.cfm
Glenn Arnold is a member of the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and strictly a writer. He has published many different articles concerning the Death Penalty in many different magazines. His article states facts about the Death Penalty and does not state a certain side he is on. The article lets the reader decide their own opinion on the subject. Expect to obtain information concerning countries and states that are for and against the punishment. As a reader you will began to understand the reasoning for the death penalty and reasoning why the death penalty seems to be worthless. The article exposed the reality of the subject and is very useful for an understanding and overview of the death penalty.
Anderson, Kerby. Capital Punishment. August 5, 2003. Probe Ministries.
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/cap-pun.html
Kerby Anderson is the President of Probe Ministries. He is a nationally syndicated columnist and has published several books. This article is based on the religious outlook towards the death penalty. Expect to read examples and reasoning from the old and new testaments of the bible. At the end of the article he will discuss discrimination and objections towards capital punishment. This is a Very broad overview of oppositions against the punishment and a very reliable source if you are looking for moral reasons against Capital Punishment.
CQ Researcher. Rethinking the Death Penalty. November 16, 2001. Volume 11, Number 40.
http://Library.cqupress.com/cqresearcher/document.php
This is a very reliable resource because it allows you to view a full report, overview, background, current situations, outlook, pros/cons, and bibliography about capital punishment. The report starts out with a story of a mental patient faced with capital punishment and what ends up happening to him. Then reveals the publics viewpoint and shows visual graphs and statistics supporting their claim. There is no support towards or against the subject, mostly just facts are shown throughout the report. The general overview seemed to be most useful for my research on the topic.
Sarat, Austin. The Killing State. Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press 1999.
Austin Sarat is a Professor of Political Science and Amherst College. He is the author and editor of 20 books and president of the Law and Society Association. Every aspect of Capital Punishment is examined through out this book. He looks and a lot of the moral aspects of capital punishment and the rate of killings each year. Killings by the state is deeply revealed and exposed through out the chapters. He also explains how this type of punishment affects our culture.
Marzilli, Alan. Capital Punishment. Chelsea House Publishers. Phiadelphia 2003.
Marzilli is a consultant for several non-profit organizations and well known spokesperson for mental health issues all over the world. This short book explains the Death Penalty as and effective Deterrent to Crime. Counterpoints how it is already too easy to convict and execute people. He also points out how capital punishment is applied unfairly. He also explains how capital punishment could be in the future of America. I found this as a good source for an opinion on Capital Punishment. It has very good social reasoning concerning the topic of capital punishment and I found it useful for a social standpoint.
Kerrigan, Michael. Death Row and Capital Punishment. Crime and Detection. Manson Crest Publishers 2005.
Michael Kerrigan is a long time journalist and studied at Oxford and Princeton. This book is very easy to understand and read. All the pictures help reveal the truth about Capital Punishment and the effects it has on the people. I liked the book starts off with the history of Capital Punishment dating back to the roman times and how it is used today. Expect to read about the American tradition of the death penalty and how it is used in detail. Then the death penalty world wide is explained but in not so much detail. At the end of the book he will talk about the protestors towards the death penalty and give reliable insight on to how he obtained the information. I really liked how it was very easy to understand and didn’t leave me with any questions.
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