Death Penalty: Seeking Justice In An Imperfect System

[Subjugation]

Aw, come on. You mentioned two specific examples. I wasn't being lazy by asking for the data. ^-^

[Epinephrine]

Aw, come on. You mentioned two specific examples. I wasn't being lazy by asking for the data. ^-^

There are just things that I know from years of knowing about common arguments to common problems thanks to debating. If you have pay access to the New York Times, look up old articles by Bob Herbert (or at the library) as he's done many articles in the last 2 years about how blacks are unfairly on death row.

[Tone]

theres nothing more to say, the thesis statement alone is common back and white sense that cant be refuted. i suppose you could give case examples. one search you can do in google is:

http://www.google.com/search?q=georg...ty&btnG=Search

[Vykromond]

Racial balance and the death penalty: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arti...did=105&scid=5

Good luck with your paper, J=T. The death penalty might not be horribly important on the grand societal scale, but it touches upon fundamental conceptions of society that are important.

[genocidal]

The death penalty might not be horribly important on the grand societal scale, but it touches upon fundamental conceptions of society that are important.

What the fuck is this supposed to mean? Not everyone tries to save the world with their term papers, you know.

[Vykromond]

What the fuck is this supposed to mean? Not everyone tries to save the world with their term papers, you know.

It's supposed to mean that you shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the death penalty issue, in and of itself, isn't that important. Which is what I said. I wasn't telling him to write a different paper, so sod off.

[Subjugation]

theres nothing more to say, the thesis statement alone is common back and white sense that cant be refuted. i suppose you could give case examples. one search you can do in google is:

http://www.google.com/search?q=georg...ty&btnG=Search

Yes, I was planning on using this as an example. It makes a pretty dramatic statement when a governor does something like this. Thanks.

[Subjugation]

Racial balance and the death penalty: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arti...did=105&scid=5

Good luck with your paper, J=T. The death penalty might not be horribly important on the grand societal scale, but it touches upon fundamental conceptions of society that are important.

Thanks, I've been getting a lot of references from that site.






I don't expect anyone to actually read this, but this is what I have for the introduction to the paper (just the intro, not the thesis). If you have any feedback about how I could improve the readability or the flow, I'd appreciate it.

To set the reader up with an anecdote, it opens with an exerpt from a law professor's investigation of an old case he's attempting to re-open. The second paragraph is where the intro begins:

“…we now know that the witness who provoked Justice Blackmar’s concern in fact lied, while another eyewitness – a victim of the shooting who still carries a bullet from it in his body – knew all along that Larry Griffin was innocent, but was ignored. What this means, of course, is not only that the wrong person was arrested and convicted but also that the real criminals have never been brought to justice. We have substantial new information on the identities of the actual killers of Quintin Moss. However, a more thorough investigation by appropriate authorities will be necessary to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” [1]

Wrongful imprisonment is a subject that fascinates our culture. It takes something that society holds very dear---equity---and stands it on its head. We become riveted by news stories where the innocent are imprisoned for decades, only to be set free when new evidence is uncovered. Movies like The Fugitive, The Green Mile, and The Hurricane have won a slew of nominations and awards, and their storylines depict men wrongfully jailed. The appeal of these stories can probably be explained for a variety of reasons, but the ones we tend to see in movies and news coverage are different from the story of Larry Griffin. What makes his story so different is that despite an investigation uncovering startling new evidence that could overturn his conviction, there is no way he will ever be set free from jail. That’s because Larry Griffin was executed on June 21st, 1995.

[Vykromond]

I like it. Very punchy. I don't know if I'd open it with the quote, though: it doesn't necessarily do anything tremendously important for you, isn't as well-written as your own stuff, and delays the introduction of your narrative voice.

[Subjugation]

Thanks. I was hoping the quote would begin the paper with an element of authority and credibility. I think you have a good point regarding the delay of the narative voice. I'll take it out, make it more readable, and stick it in the paper at some further point, because I think the reader will be curious about Griffin's story.

Thanks for the advice.

[genocidal]

It's supposed to mean that you shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the death penalty issue, in and of itself, isn't that important. Which is what I said. I wasn't telling him to write a different paper, so sod off.

Well I totally disagree and I think anyone would be hard-pressed to come up with more "important issues" in society. Abortion? Gay marriage? Campaign finance reform? China? Western assumptions of hegemony? I don't think there's an argument to be made that any one of those is intrinsically more important that another - in fact, the death penalty is the only one directly dealing with an important fundamental issue of life, death.

[Money]

Go chug ten cans of red bull, I dare you

so is that what yall do up there in Arkansas to get fucked up?

[BleakFuture]

Judge Dredd had the right idea.

[Ephemeral]

Soylent Green is people!!!!
But seriously...

Empirically I think the taking of any other human life is wrong. I am quite sure that in a few hundred years we will know enough about human behavior, DNA, and brain chemistry to look back at these times and declare all of us barbarians. JT, you might want to include the recent news about how researchers have identified the part of DNA which allows the human brain to mutate as a possible extension to this thought.

Emotionally, if some low life was to take out my wife/family, give me about 5 minutes with him in the same room. An eye for an eye.

JT, you might to research the history of crime and criminal reform. It has swung back and forth between punishment and reform for centuries.

[geekbot]

Points of thought:

Justice: Is killing in return for killing just? Europe agrees with you. http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_r.../adp/index.htm

Deterrant: Is it effective for keeping criminals off the streets and deterring crime? Are there alternatives? What are they and how effective (deterrant as well as cost)?

Implementation: As you said, is it right to keep a system that ends a life when the injustice system is imperfect? How imperfect is it? How close to perfect before implementation is feasible?