Ghazala Khan
Andrea Silva
Eng 3010b
October 11, 2010
Fifth Response
Fifth Response
O’Sullivan, John. “Deadly Stakes: The Debate Over Capital Punishment.” Perspectives on
Contemporary Issues: Readings Across the Disciplines Fifth Edition (2009): 401-05.
O’Sullivan is editor-in-chief of the National Interest. He writes this opinion piece for the
National Review Online in 2002. O’Sullivan discusses different views on the death
penalty, comparing public polls with politicians. He further analyzes both sides and gives
the describes both sides of this argument for or against the death penalty. He states
current ruling on such issues by describing what the U.S. Constitution states regarding its
issue and also politicians in Europe. He uses two specific examples of murders
committed in California and Britain to bring light to his argument. He also uses a study
from Emory University regarding capital punishment’s deterrent effect, which is based on
the statistical analysis of the recent evidence. He also discusses statistics on wrongful
executions vs. murders committed by those who have previously committed murders.
This article is written for the general public interested in this issue, and does not require
too much background knowledge to understand.