Bryce Stottlemire
Research and Techniques
Evaluation of Souces
Question: Why should capital punishment not be used in the United States as a form of
sentencing due to the possibility of false accusation?
Christianson, S. (2004). Innocent: Inside wrongful conviction cases. New York: New York
University Press
I believe the audience is individuals that do believe in capital punishment, and the book is also
for the people that don’t have a judgment on the issue. The information could also provide more
examples for those that do not believe in the death penalty. The information does meet the
expectations of where death row inmates are convicted and are proven innocent later on. The
book provides me with the information I need to show examples of the justice system failing
when it comes to the death penalty. It applies to my research project by proving the fact that
innocent people have been executed within the United States court system. I noticed that the
author did show some biases towards wealthier people by saying they received better outcomes
in regards to the judicial system. The author does provide many proper citations throughout the
book and provides pictures of the court case documents. It also an extensive bibliography at the
end of the article. The book is at the border of up-to-date because it is eight to nine years old, but
the information should still be relevant to the issue. The author does have a background in the
judicial system, and he held positions within the New York state criminal system. He also
provided citations in his book to build up his credibility. The New York Press is a publisher of
scholarly works, and it helps the author with reliability regarding his book. The book has only
been cited 16 times according to Google Scholar, which means that the book is not the most
popular book involving the issue of false accusations. I believe that this book provides the point
that capital punishment in America is a faulted way of punishment. This will bring to the
attention of a better system of convicting people of high profiled crimes. I would give the source
a rating of 4 out 5 because it provides example of false accusations. The only things going
against the book consist of bias and not being a well-known source.
Luna, E. (2005, Fall). System failure. American Criminal Law Review, 42(4), 1201+. Retrieved from
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/AcademicJornalsDetailsWindow
?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&displayquery=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Journals&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=fal
se&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=
&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA140524319&source=Bookmark&u=klnb_ottawauniv&jsid=a9
8fdecc108f777299cef99ed6946431
The primary audience for the academic journal is regarding to those that believe or do not
believe in capital punishment. The source is providing examples of the faults of capital
punishment to show the believers the downfalls and to reassure the non-believers; this is what
the user is expecting from the source. This helps my research by giving examples of how the
human and system error of the court system can cause innocent people to be sentenced to death.
It provides concrete evidence with my argument against capital punishment, and I didn’t find any
biases or faulty information within the journal. It just provides the different faults in detail and
doesn’t try to persuade the user with opinionated material. The citations within the journal show
me that the source is cross examined, and it provides information from many different
occurrences. It also provides a bibliography at the end of the journal to show the references it
used. This source is also at the edge of the up-to-date range by being ten years old, but the
information is still current to the issues of today’s judicial system. The author has a major
background in the subject by being a Professor of Law and has published many writings
involving law cases. The publisher, American Criminal Law Review, is a premier journal of law;
the publisher helps provide credibility for the author. The journal offers original information on
how the justice system is not flawless, and the system has the capability of accusing the innocent.
This information is read by many educated people because the journal is written on a popular
academic journal, and this means that the source is spreading the word on capital punishment. I
feel that this journal can help the justice system in the future by showing people the faults in the
system and what to correct to make it better. I give this source a 5 out of 5 rating because it
provides me with bias free information on the problems with capital punishment. This source
would allow me to show the issue of capital punishment and provide concrete examples of
innocent people being executed.
Medwed, D. S. (2005, Fall). Looking foreword: wrongful convictions and systemic reform. American
Criminal Law Review, 42(4), 1117+. Retrieved from
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/AcademicJournalsDetailsWindow
?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&displayquery=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Journals&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=fal
se&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=
&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA140524316&source=Bookmark&u=klnb_ottawauniv&jsid=fa
661026bb536ed469f4647ac63c8e4e
The audience for the journal article would be those that are curious about the issue of false
accusation involving the judicial system. This source provides the audience with many different
viewpoints from experts on the different faults involving false accusation. This supports my
research by giving me many different reasons why capital punishment may not be fault proof.
With this information I can show through my research that capital punishment is not the answer
for heavy punishment. I didn’t find any bias within the journal; it just provided different
viewpoints from others and didn’t insert generalizations. The bibliography at the end of the
journal shows the user that the author used many references to provide the most accurate
information. The references in the journal were current and formatted correctly. The information
is also at the edge of the up-to-date range, but again the all of the source is current to the capital
punishment issue. The author is also a Professor of Criminal Law, and he provides many
different inputs from other highly qualified individuals of the law. The publisher like the other
journal is, American Criminal Law Review, and the publication provides the credibility of a
highly regarded law journal. The journal has an impact on others because it provides other
scholars with different professional’s ideas on the reasons why false accusation is current in the
court of law. I believe that this will help the judicial system in the future on correcting the issues
of capital punishment and wrongful conviction. I give the source a rating of 5 out of 5 because it
provides many different viewpoints that can help my research. The different thoughts could
provide some variety to my research and establish reasons why the system is failing.
McLaughlin, M. (2014, April 28). Shocking numbers of innocent sentenced to
death, study finds. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from Huffington Post website:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/28/
innocent-death-penalty-study_n_5228854.html
The audience for the article is those that believe in the death penalty, and the source shows that
the falsely convicted rate is at a very high level. This provides quality information for my
research because it gives me statistics on the amount of people falsely accused on death row.
This helps provide concrete evidence that people in the United States are being convicted of
crimes they didn’t commit, and their lives are being put in danger by the court system. I didn’t
find much bias throughout the article, and the website article just gave statistics on the amount of
innocent people convicted by the court system. The article also used citations from different
experts and studies on the issue and amount of innocent people convicted. It doesn’t provide a
bibliography, but it does cite within the article. The article didn’t provide much further
information within the article other than a few statistics and reasons why there might be even
more innocent people convicted. The source was published very recently in 2014, and the author
may not have a professional background in the area, but he provides expert findings to back his
authority. The publisher is The Huffington Post, which means the information is most likely
accurate given their reliability. The only issue is that The Huffington Post is a website that makes
it money off of advertisement, so it provides information that the user would want to read. The
article is on a very popular news website, so the article has many views from news seekers that
want knowledge. This information showed viewers that false accusation is a major issue in the
United States, and it will keep going on until the lawmakers make a change. Others might want
to further the research in the issue to see the differences of productivity of court systems between
capital and noncapital punishment states. I would say this source is about a 3.5 out 5 rating
because it provides statistics of the issue, but it doesn’t provide any other valuable information.
The source provides only a small amount of information, and I would have to search thoroughly
to find the information that I need.
Johnson, A., & Wagner, M. (2015, March 8). Questions raised about the death
penalty in Ohio. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from The Columbus Dispatch
website: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/03/08/
death-or-life.html
The audience for this article would consist of those that are curious about the issue if capital
punishment and if it should be used as a form of punishment. It provided information on how
many people have been taking off of death row, and how people in Ohio want to change the law;
this information is valuable to my research. It applies to my research topic because are it
provides an instance in Ohio where people were getting off of death row because they were
being proven innocent. It also provides other information on Ohio’s state of mind involving
capital punishment and how a man died from a long and painful execution. I can tell the writers
are bias by being against the death penalty, but the authors don’t provide any input to persuade
the user. The authors provide many different citations in the article to help show the troubles
with capital punishment in Ohio, and they use the references correctly throughout the writing.
The source was written this month meaning it shows the current arguments involving the issue of
the death penalty. The authors don’t necessarily have a background on the issue, but they use
references to establish their reliability. The publication is a local newspaper company that is
reporting on the issue; this means that they would most likely have the most accurate information
since they are reporting on their own issues. This article has provided Ohio and the country with
news on the false accusations of death row inmates. This information is original, and it might
create an initiative to try to solve the issues involving the death penalty. Ohio and other states
might look to alternatives for higher punishment. I feel that this article is a good source that
provides a valuable example of why the death penalty is not the right choice. It may not be
written for scholarly readers, but it provides valuable information that can be used for my
research; this is why I would give it a 4 out of 5 rating.