You may have seen executions on television or in movies before and sensed the gruesomeness of it, but today it is a huge topic of debate in the United States and abroad. Nearly 65% of Americans are in favor of the death penalty, displaying how evenly split the country is and that many people you know have a differing opinion. It is a hot-button issue that, unlike other issues, may not see a defiant answer for decades. In my portfolio I will guide through a variety of twenty pieces that display differing aspects of the death penalty and why it has both positives and negatives.
On this website you will find a large assortment of material ranging from music videos to articles on the cost of executing a felon. Each particular piece outlines a specific point of the death penalty, either good or bad.
A reason I was drawn to the issue of execution is the cost and subsequent usage of our tax dollars. It costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life. A 2011 study found that California has spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment since it was reinstated in 1978 and that death penalty trials are 20 times more expensive than trials seeking a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
Also, the wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 142 men and women have been released from Death Row nationally....some only minutes away from execution. Moreover, in the past two years evidence has come to light which indicates that four men may have been wrongfully EXECUTED in recent years for crimes they did not commit. This error rate is simply ridiculous, and completely unacceptable, when we are talking about life and death.
My desire to research the death penalty and become knowledgeable on the topic stemmed from the recent trials of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was involved in the Boston Bombing and the deaths of multiple people. It is highly likely that Tsarnaev will receive the death penalty when the trials and such come to a close. Is this just to execute a man? At what point does a person meet the criteria fit for capital punishment? With the help of my twenty pieces I hope your opinion can become better formulated.
On this website you will find a large assortment of material ranging from music videos to articles on the cost of executing a felon. Each particular piece outlines a specific point of the death penalty, either good or bad.
A reason I was drawn to the issue of execution is the cost and subsequent usage of our tax dollars. It costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life. A 2011 study found that California has spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment since it was reinstated in 1978 and that death penalty trials are 20 times more expensive than trials seeking a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
Also, the wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 142 men and women have been released from Death Row nationally....some only minutes away from execution. Moreover, in the past two years evidence has come to light which indicates that four men may have been wrongfully EXECUTED in recent years for crimes they did not commit. This error rate is simply ridiculous, and completely unacceptable, when we are talking about life and death.
My desire to research the death penalty and become knowledgeable on the topic stemmed from the recent trials of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was involved in the Boston Bombing and the deaths of multiple people. It is highly likely that Tsarnaev will receive the death penalty when the trials and such come to a close. Is this just to execute a man? At what point does a person meet the criteria fit for capital punishment? With the help of my twenty pieces I hope your opinion can become better formulated.