New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2021. The dissenting opinion argued that the defendant had, in fact, sufficiently demonstrated that the use of lethal injection in this case met the standards for an Eighth Amendment challenge previously established by the court itself. Proponents of the death penalty say it is an important tool for preserving law and order, deters crime, and costs less than life imprisonment. Cohen, Andrew. Why its a good source: Although it is primarily based on an emotional appeal, this is a good article to get background and historical information about the death penalty. One year after the announcement federal executions resumed, and ten prisoners were executed by the federal government in the last six months of 2020. Scheidegger is a California lawyer who is a staunch pro-death penalty supporter. But the widest partisan divide wider than differences in opinions about the death penalty itself is over whether White people and Black people are equally likely to be sentenced to the death penalty for committing similar crimes. Now that weve covered what to look for in those death penalty articles, lets get to some more concrete examples. Grades: 8-10 More>>. Sophisticated studies at the state level show that the death penalty costs taxpayers more than life without parole. By comparison, just 35% of Republicans and 21% of Democrats who oppose the death penalty say it is morally justified. These days, after President Trumps appointment of three justices, liberal members of the court have lost all hope of abolishing capital punishment. Do you believe governments should be allowed to execute people who have been convicted of crimes? Both rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948. US Supreme Court Packing. The rulings followed the appointment of five members of the conservative Federalist Society to the court in under a year. It is a very complex issue, and context on the crime is essential. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public. The data in the most recent survey, collected from Pew Research Centers online American Trends Panel (ATP), finds that 60% of Americans favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. For example, the average cost of this case is almost $2.5 million (Goodman). Gun Control. Web. The move provoked immediate debate, as public support for capital punishment had reached historic lows in many states and regions of the country. Asian American adults are more divided, with half saying the death penalty deters serious crimes and a similar share (49%) saying it does not. What its about: Jacobys article tells of then-governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romneys plan to create a fool-proof, error-free death penalty. "violent crime has declined 11 percent, with murder showing the largest decline at even more than 22 percent. Vast racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty have been found. There are wide ideological differences within both parties on this issue. This doesnt always mean that you have to get an article from a well-known news website or national newspaper, but that the article should be backed up with cited facts. The judge who imposed the death sentence on Mr. Honken, Mark Bennett, said that while he generally opposed the death penalty, he would not lose any sleep over Mr. Honkens execution. (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main Do you have worries about the fair application of the death penalty, or about the possibility of the criminal justice system executing an innocent person? More than eight-in-ten Democrats (83%) instead say that Black people are more likely than White people to be sentenced to the death penalty for committing similar crimes. Among those with postgraduate degrees, a larger share say they oppose (55%) than favor (44%) the death penalty. Be aware of biases. The Federal Death Penalty Act prohibits the government from executing an inmate who is mentally disabled; however, in the recent executions of Corey Johnson, Alfred Bourgeois and Lisa Montgomery, their defense teams, families and others argued that they had intellectual disabilities. As of January 2021, Black defendants accounted for 34.1 percent of all people executed in the United States since 1976 and over 40 percent of the country's death row population despite making up just over 13 percent of the general US population. Mr. Lees lawyers and other death penalty opponents are entitled to disagree with that sentiment. Among Democrats, a 55% majority of conservatives and moderates favor the death penalty, a position held by just 36% of liberal Democrats (64% of liberal Democrats oppose the death penalty). Choose your death penalty articles from a variety of sources. About four-in-ten (39%) oppose the death penalty, with 15% strongly opposed, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Tell us about it. Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning. For this analysis, we surveyed 5,109 U.S. adults from April 5 to 11, 2021. About half of those with four-year undergraduate degrees but no postgraduate experience (49%) support the death penalty. Web. About seven-in-ten Black adults (72%) and narrower majorities of White (62%) and Hispanic (63%) adults say the same. The American people can decide for themselves which aspects of that process should be considered shameful.. The federal government lifted its capital punishment moratorium in 1988, though it did not carry out another execution until 2001. A large majority of liberal Democrats (82%) and a smaller, though still substantial, majority of conservative and moderate Democrats (70%) say the death penalty does not deter serious crimes. Amnesty International holds that the death penalty breaches human rights, in particular the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Black: 40.9%. Cruel and Unusual. New Yorker. Eric Risberg/AP. Across educational and racial or ethnic groups, majorities say that the death penalty does not deter serious crimes, although there are differences in how widely this view is held. The third execution, of Dustin Honken, occurred on schedule, but still too late for some of his victims families. After America's Most Wanted aired a pro-gram about him, McDuff was arrested in 1992, convicted, and given two death sentences. A similar ruling was handed down by the court in Moore v. Texas (2017), which stated that the standards used to determine intellectual disability in Texas created an "unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disabilities will be executed.". Supporters of the death penalty believe that those who commit murder, because they have taken the life of another, have forfeited . Capital Punishment in America: Race and the Death Penalty over Time by Martin G. Urbina. European drug manufacturers objected to capital punishment procedures, and the European Commission banned the export of drugs used in lethal injection procedures in 2011. It then covers the popular opinions of death penalty sentences, and goes on to state and give statistics indicating that state executions deter anywhere from 2 to 20 murders within Texas annually. All cases were related to ongoing state-level efforts to reform capital punishment laws. As Ms. Longs stepmother later said, We just shouldnt have had to wait this long. The Supreme Court ultimately authorized the execution just before 3 a.m. Why? In McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), the US Supreme Court again confronted the issue of race and capital punishment. What other ideas do you have? Sentencing a person to death for the rape or murder of an innocent person affirms the value of the life of the victim, and should bring more comfort to the victim's family. 14 Jan. 2015. What its about: This article, like the one above, is more concerned with problems within the structure of the death penalty than with whether or not there should be a death penalty. The death penalty is permanent, meaning if someone is wrongfully convicted, the effects are irreversible. The American people have repeatedly ratified that decision, including through the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 signed by President Bill Clinton, the federal execution of Timothy McVeigh under President George W. Bush and the decision by President Barack Obamas Justice Department to seek the death penalty against the Boston Marathon bomber and Dylann Roof. There are substantial demographic differences in views of whether death sentencing is applied fairly across racial groups. The number of executions performed annually began a steady rise during this decade. Most people who write about the death penalty have an opinion one way or the other about it. Scheidegger is a California lawyer who is a staunch pro-death penalty supporter. This view is particularly widespread among Black adults: 85% of Black adults say Black people are more likely than Whites to receive the death penalty for being convicted of similar crimes (61% of Hispanic adults and 49% of White adults say this). This created a problem for juries that found a defendant guilty but did not believe the offense warranted a sentence of death. The Center was founded in 1990 and prepares in-depth reports, issues press releases, conducts briefings for journalists, and serves as a resource to those working on this issue. Yet the death penalty for people convicted of murder continues to draw support from a majority of Americans despite widespread doubts about its administration, fairness and whether it deters serious crimes. Arizona 209 . I have ten death penalty articles that will help you turn a stale topic into a well-written and interesting essay. In January 2021 the federal government executed Lisa Marie Montgomery, the first woman to receive such a punishment from the federal government in sixty-seven years. The death penalty remains a controversial political and legal issue in the United States. Over the past two years, the share of Republicans who say they favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder has decreased slightly by 7 percentage points while the share of Democrats who say this is essentially unchanged (46% today vs. 49% in 2019). During the 1980s, more than half of all federal appeals in capital punishment cases resulted in death sentences being overturned. Although they note that some members of Mr. Lees victims families opposed his execution, others did not. Jacoby, Jeff. His successor, Joe Biden, has voiced opposition to the death penalty and stated his intention to introduce reforms. The sources are credible, and the article also includes anecdotal support. The deepest element of the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" is to protect human life, and is the requirement to show reverence and love for every person and the life of every human being.The assault on human life is a consequence of original sin. The New York Times Company, 28 Sept. 2003. Half of those who favor the death penalty say this, compared with 13% of those who oppose it. Black prisoners accounted for 41% of death row inmates, far higher than their 13% share of the nation's adult population that year. Two months after these executions, on March 24, 2021, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill passed by the Democratic-majority state legislature that abolished the death penalty in the state. In his final statement, Mr. Purkey apologized to Jennifers family for the pain he had caused, contradicting the claim of his lawyers that he did not understand the reason for his execution. For death penalty supporters, one major pro is its effectiveness as a crime deterrent. Mandatory National Service. 10-Year Unsolved Crime Leads to Death: Frank Welch Story. Web. California, Texas and Florida hold nearly half of the country's death row prisoners, according to a new Bureau of Justice Statistics report. How concerned should we be about wrongfully convicted people being executed? CORRECTION (July 13, 2021): The following sentence was updated to reflect the correct timespan: Last year, in part because of the coronavirus outbreak, fewer people were executed than in any year in nearly three decades. The changes did not affect the reports substantive findings. Web. The Innocence Project, founded in 1992, focuses on providing legal services and DNA testing with the purpose of winning exoneration for wrongfully convicted prisoners. While conservative Republicans are more likely to express support for the death penalty than moderate and liberal Republicans, clear majorities of both groups favor the death penalty (82% of conservative Republicans and 68% of moderate and liberal Republicans). In the years since the McCleskey ruling, opponents of capital punishment have continued to voice concerns about the role of racial bias in death penalty sentencing. Three Good Reasons Details the three main reasons why people support the death penalty. It will make your arguments and the support for those arguments much stronger. The death penalty, known as capital punishment, is the government-sanctioned taking of a life as punishment for a crime. The article continues: If Justice Breyer sounded rueful, it was because he had just a few years ago held out hope that the court would reconsider the constitutionality of capital punishment. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. A. Alabama 443. That court entered a last-minute reprieve that the Supreme Court has said should be an extreme exception.. The New York Times Company, 19 Dec. 2013. The Daily Beast, 31 July 2014. But as a legal issue, it is straightforward. Adults ages 50 to 64 are most supportive of the death penalty, with 69% in favor. It is a good source for pulling direct quotes instead of just giving statistics. 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