CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Is There A Middle Ground Solution?
Arguments Under Mediation…
Pro-Death Penalty
1. Death Penalty Deters Crime
2. Properly Serves Justice
3. Necessary for Victim’s Family
Grieving Process
Anti-Death Penalty
1. Does NOT Deter Crime
2. Rarely A Positive Experience
In The Grieving Process
Statistics Found In Support of Death Penalty
-From 1966 to 1976 (When Executions Were Made Illegal In
The U.S.) Murders almost doubled from 11,040 to 23,040!
-Murder Rate Also Climbed from 5.6 per 100,000 to 10.2!
-When the death penalty was reinstated, this rate of 10.2
dropped to 5.5 by the year of 2000
-This is a 46% reduction
Just About Sold Right?
www.city-data.com
Anti-Death Penalty Rebuttal To These
Statistics
-American Civil Liberties Union says all positive deterrence results are not
credible
-States that do practice the death penalty experience the same murder rates
as the states that do not
-This means that positive deterrence results are inconclusive. There must
then be other outlying factors that affect the national murder rates.
Top U.S. Criminologists Were Polled On This Issue
88% do not believe that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide
87% believe that the abolition of the death penalty would not have any
significant effect on murder rates
(Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology)
If it does not deter murder, than does it help victim’s
families and serve justice?
“executions giving ‘closure’ to a tragedy is a myth and that to kill the
person who has killed someone close to you is simply to continue
the cycle of violence which ultimately destroys the avenger as well as
the offender”
(Raymond A. Schroth, Jesuit Priest and Community Professor of the Humanities
at St. Peter’s College)
“Each court date, each appeal, each write-up in the newspaper,
revisiting and revisiting the pain, each event keeping me that much
further from healing”
(Sandra Place, Daughter of Victim)
“The death penalty brings as much pain as it does relief, that it
creates an entirely new layer of pain”
(Janice Greishaber, Mother of Victim)
My Mediation
- I do believe that the death penalty is necessary in order to serve
justice. A murderer being put to death could never match what their
victim’s were put through
- To kill all murderers though is infallible due to the drawn out court
process
- My solution is to execute those convicted of only extremely heinous
murders
- This is the best solution I could find because it executes murderers
only on the principle of justice and not on beliefs of deterrence and
the grieving process of victim’s families
- How many people could argue against the execution of a child
rapist/murderer or an insane serial killer?
Works Cited
Sharp, Dudley. "Death Penalty Paper." Pro-death Penalty.com. 1 Oct. 1997. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html>.
"Top 10 Pros and Cons - Death Penalty - ProCon.org." Death Penalty ProCon.org. 13 Apr. 2009. Web. 30 Mar.
2012. <http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000>.
Radelet, M., and T. Ladoc. "Facts about Deterrence and the Death Penalty." Death Penalty
Information Center. 18 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty>.
Quotes by Families of Homicide Victims." Equal Justice USA. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.
http://ejusa.org/learn/quotes/victims
Newport, Frank. "In U.S., Two-Thirds Continue to Support Death Penalty." Gallup. 13 Oct. 2009. Web. 30 Mar.
2012. <http://www.gallup.com/poll/123638/in-u.s.-two-thirds-continue-support-death-penalty.aspx>.
Wright, Valerie L. Could Quicker Executions Deter Homicides?: The Relationship between Celerity, Capital
Punishment, and Murder. El Paso [Tex.: LFB Scholarly Pub., 2011. Print.
Miller, Karen S. Wrongful Capital Convictions and the Legitimacy of the Death Penalty. New York: LFB
Scholarly Pub. LLC, 2006. Print.
Zimring, Franklin E. The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
Cole, W. Owen. "Book of Exodus." The Christian Bible. Oxford: Heinemann, 1993. Print.
Name& Section: Glasscock, HE
Grading Rubric
Excellent
Good
Context
Purpose: perceptive definition of central question, visual &
verbal; scope is narrow, question consistent throughout
X
Substance
Development: sufficient summary & insight; slides focused &
yet fully developed; mix of verbal & visual information
Sources: appropriate for topic, pertinent in placement, and
accurately cited; quotations & data introduced correctly
X
X
Organization
Thesis: a thesis, early or late, that clearly states both sides of
question & its mediation
Introduction and Conclusion: overview of organization given
at the beginning; conclusion sums up key points
Relationship: relationship of ideas clear; coherent; visual cues
guide us through presentation
X
X
X
Style
Style: clear & to-the-point text on-screen; same for data onscreen; the verbal component fits the visual
Verbal performance: engaging presence, name given, neither
too colloquial nor too formal; no mumbling
Conventions & Correctness
 free from data errors
 free from word errors (SP, etc.)
X
X
X
Response Team
Response: Questions in class & written responses demonstrate
understanding; response helps enhance presentation
(rated “Excellent,” “Good,” or “Fair.”
X
Fair
Needs
Work
Grade and Comments
Overall Comments: Your paper on the controversy over Capital Punishment was
hardly a bad job. Yet this presentation took the material to new levels of insight and
clarity, and that’s something you should think about for the future. You have some
innate skill, in arranging and presenting arguments out loud. This one uses the
PowerPoint technology impressively, juggling images and words, and inserting
certain words in different colors, in the right places (I should mention, though, that
you use “than” for “then” at one point). You marshal statistics effectively as well, for
instance when considering cases in different states, and you’ve dug up some
pertinent quotes, especially against the idea of “closure.” As for the mediation, its
main points would work under the present system, which demonstrates maturity. All
this and a fine Works Cited!
A or 95.