Who Owns The Sources? ~ 4

- The Death Penalty -
(in support of)


According to Wesley Lowe capital punishment is a perfectly valid solution to dispose of deadly criminals. He argues that the fewer executions there are, the more murders there are. 

During the temporary suspension on capital punishment from 1972-1976, researchers gathered murder statistics across the country. In 1960, there were 56 executions in the USA and 9,140 murders. By 1964, when there were only 15 executions, the number of murders had risen to 9,250. In 1969, there were no executions and 14,590 murders, and 1975, after six more years without executions, 20,510 murders occurred rising to 23,040 in 1980 after only two executions since 1976. In summary, between 1965 and 1980, the number of annual murders in the United States skyrocketed from 9,960 to 23,040, a 131 percent increase. He also makes the point that a life sentence in jail is just not good enough anymore because of escapes, and different laws in states. Lowe believes that a

s long as the murderer lives, there is always a chance, no matter how small, that he will strike again. He also argues that race doesn't play a part in capital punishment because "m

urder has no color, class, or IQ. A murderer is a murderer." He finishes off by saying confidently, "

While I believe that prompt and consistent executions would have a deterrent effect, there remains one great virtue, even for infrequent executions. The recidivism rate for capital punishment is zero. No executed murderer has ever killed again. You can't say that about those sentenced to prison, even if you are an abolitionist."

The graph above drawn by the Bureau of Criminal Justice gives a general overview of the murder rate compared to the number of executions that had taken place in the US up to the year 2000

Information found at: www.wesleylowe.com

Who Owns The Sources? ~ 3

- Death Penalty- 
(In support of) 
The voices of the murders are heard much more often than that of the victims that died. But it is many people's belief that the murders deserved to die for their heinous crimes. They believe that we must think first of the 1,895 murdered victims instead of the 1,000 that committed these crimes and have died because of them. Jurors, when faced with the decision of what to do to these criminals, they make the right choice to give them the consequence of death. "With a yearly average of 15,000 murders, the fact that we are reaching 1,000 executions in only a little more than 30 years is proof that capital punishment has been reserved for the worst of the worst." The death of a murder is no tragedy, for they can no longer commit the same crime and end even more lives. The death penalty has saved more lives than it has ended, and therefore should be kept in use. 


Info found at: www.prodeathpenalty.com

Who Owns The Sources? ~ 2

- Death Penalty - 
The death penalty is considered unconstitutional, and in fact, the juvenile death penalty has already been abolished for this very reason. "The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted along with Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens in favor of the ban. So some wonder why the death penalty for those older than 18 is not abolished for being unconstitutional as well. The question of whether capital punishment should be used against people who commit horrible crimes is still argued. 


Info found at: www.pbs.org

Who Owns The Sources?

- The Death Penalty-
The death penalty has been a heated debate for years. The case of Troy Davis is thought to prove how unjust and cruel the death penalty really is. Troy Davis was executed in Georgia despite serious suspicions that he was wrongly accused of killing a police officer. Not only that, but it is strongly believed that the death penalty violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment. And this penalty is defiantly unusual because the United States is the only western industrialized nation that engages in this punishment. Capital punishment is a denial of civil liberties and is therefore inconsistent with the fundamental values of our democratic system.

Info found at: http://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment

Columnists Ahoy!

What Price Life?
By: Muareen Dowd

Summary:

There are many debates about whether the government overreacted or not with evacuating so many people during Irene. Some believe that the government was just making up for their underreactions to a blizzard, where they didn't evacuate enough. However, it is concluded that saving lives was the most important thing. Unfortunately with situations like Katrina, they choose not to use their strong, centralized executive power to save people even though millions of dollars were spend in other places, such as trying to impose democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan. It is still argued whether the government should even have a part in these situations, considering the choices they have been making.

Information found at: www.nytimes.com

- Maureen Dowd -
winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, became a  New York Times Op-Ed columnist in 1995 after having served as a correspondent in the paper's Washington bureau since 1986.