Death Penalty/ Capital Punishment

1. Death Penalty/Capital Punishment Stephanie Shumate

2. Table of Contents • Reflection Page Before Assignment • Article 1: The Death Penalty and Public Information on its use • Article 2: Science and the Death Penalty: DNA, Innocence, and the Debate over Capital Punishment in the United States • Article 3: Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the Death Penalty in America • Article 4: The Death Penalty and the Peculiarity of American Political Institution • Article 5: Consequentialism and the Death Penalty • Reflection Page After Assignment • References

3. Reflection – Pre-Research I have a friend that did a research report on capital punishment a few years ago, sparking my interest in the topic. Most of my basic knowledge comes from her. Capital punishment, aka the death penalty, has been around since the establishment of our country. Often times, criminals were hung for their crimes without the long appeal process that we have today. It was normal to kill criminals “back in the day.” There are generally three types of capital punishment that are used: firing squad, lethal injection, and the electric chair. I believe the firing squad has been outlawed and lethal injection is the method of choice for most criminals. Botched injections are common, with people who aren’t even doctors performing them and often missing the vein, causing the criminal extreme pain. Firing squads wreaked psychological havoc on the gunman’s minds. Blanks were used to keep the question of “who killed them?” a secret, but the gunmen still suffered because of it. From my knowledge, the electric chair could take up to 2 minutes to kill them, with the person feeling the pain the entire time. Capital punishment has been outlawed in several states and at large in others. Texas kills the most criminals every year, numbering close to 500 with Virginia at a distant second with close to 200. The appeal process for death row inmates is long a grueling, going through the possibility of 9 appeal processes all the way up to the Supreme Court. Naturally, the appeal process is very expensive and I have heard that the process is more expensive than life in prison for an inmate (unsure of the validity of that statement). Around 30% of the population opposes the implementation of capital punishment, with the remaining 70% favoring it. It is an issue that has been debated for hundreds of years. Should we use the “eye for an eye” theory? Should we let them rot in prison? What are the benefits and shortcomings of capital punishment? These are all questions that I hope to answer with my research.

4. The Death Penalty and Public Information on its use • This article describes, first, how the world is trending towards the abolition of the death penalty. Next, it goes into some detail about how prisoners are being put to death over crimes that do not call for capital punishment such as drug trafficking and sex crimes. Safeguards that are in place to “protect” the defendant are sometimes ignored and the death penalty is often imposed on criminals who “confessed” while under torture. • This article links with my topic of the death penalty/capital punishment because it talks specifically about how the death penalty is evolving and changing and might continue to change over the course of the next decade.

5. Science and the Death Penalty: DNA, Innocence, and the Debate over Capital Punishment in the United States • The article starts off by saying that several states have abolished the death penalty because of the fact that several innocent people have been released because of DNA technology. It then goes into more depth on the DNA profiling and the innocent factor when playing into the consideration of the death penalty. • This article ties into the topic of the death penalty/capital punishment and links to the previous article because they both talk about the innocence factor when evaluating the abolition of the death penalty.

6. Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the DeathPenalty in America • This article goes into the different attitudes that people of different races have on the death penalty in America. Whites tend to have a greater support for capital punishment than blacks, the authors speculate that it is because more blacks than whites on death row. • This article is different from the first two in that it measures people’s attitudes based on their race instead of the perceived innocence of the offender.

7. The Death Penalty and the Peculiarity of AmericanPolitical Institutions • This article explains that America is one of the few remaining countries that still implements the death penalty. The authors speculate that it is because of the support of the death penalty that the general public has, but other countries who had abolished capital punishment also had populations that showed support for the death penalty. The article also mentions that very few Americans are sufficiently educated on the death penalty. • This article ties in with the previous articles and the topic because of the discussion about politics and how that plays a role in the abolishment of the death penalty despite the majority of the public approving of it.

8. Consequentialism and the Death Penalty • This short article explains how the physicians that deliver lethal injections deal with the fact that their doctors oath says “do no harm.” Some rationalize that it says “cause no harm” and that death row inmates who have harmed deserve to be harmed. • This article is the most different from any of the others. This article talks more about the physicians that administer the injections, tying it to the death penalty topic.

9. Reflection – Post-Research • At the beginning of my research I knew a little bit about capital punishment, but I now know more. Most of the information that I knew before had to do with the actual commencing of the death penalty and little of what the public knowledge and opinions were. This is what I focused my research on. I found out that two thirds of Americans support the death penalty, even if they have little to no knowledge on the subject. They support the notion of “eye for an eye” or “tooth for a tooth” that our society tends to live by. The United States is one of the few industrialized countries that have not abolished the death penalty and the United Nations is pushing for a worldwide trend of the abolishment of capital punishment. A lot of the research that I found had the trend towards innocence as being the largest factor to influence the decreased support of the death penalty and why most countries have abolished the practice of capital punishment. In the text book required for this class, it said that a college class had exonerated 5 convicted killers throughout the course of the semester. With that being said, how many more people are sitting on death row even though they did absolutely nothing wrong? In conclusion, I learned a lot from this research assignment and it has only made me want to seek out more information on the death penalty and has made the way that I view the death penalty even stronger.

10. References • Aronson, J. D., & Cole, S. A. (2009). Science and the death penalty: DNA, innocence, and the debate over capital punishment in the united states. (2009). Law & Social Inquiry , 34(3), 603-633. doi: doi:10.1111/j.1747- 4469.2009.01159.x • Bae, S. (2008). The death penalty and the peculiarity of American political institutions. Human Rights Review, 9(2), 233-240. doi:10.1007/s12142-007-0043-1 • Peffley, M., & Hurwitz, J. (2007). Persuasion and resistance: Race and the death penalty in America. American Journal Of Political Science, 51(4), 996-1012. doi:10.1111/j.1540- 5907.2007.00293.x • Sangiorgio, C. (2011). The death penalty and public information on its use. International Review Of Law, Computers & Technology, 25(1/2), 33 41.doi:10.1080/13600869.2011.594653 • Wilkinson, D. J., & Douglas, T. (2008). Consequentialism and the death penalty. American Journal Of Bioethics, 8(10), 56- 58. doi:10.1080/15265160802478461