David R Dow Analysis

Capital punishment and the practice of the death penalty is an issue that is passionately debated in the United States. Opponents of the death penalty claim that capital punishment is unnecessary since a life sentence accomplishes the same objective. What death penalty opponents neglect to tell you is that convicted murders and child rapists escape from prison every year(List of prison escapes, 2015). As I write this essay, police are searching for two convicted murders who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York on June 6th, 2015. The ONLY punishment from which one cannot escape is the death penalty.

In the article “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins asserts that teens are becoming more violent and starting commit more crimes because of the national television they watch.Jenkins tells the reader about “JLWOP” (Juvenile Life Without Parole) and how kids are being sentenced to life in prison without parole.Some people are trying to advocate to minimize the offender culpability because of their age.While kids are getting sentenced to life without parole, this disproves juvenile advocates reliance on the undeveloped brain.Some juvenile offenders truly understand what the victim family go through and how long it takes them to recover.There were millions of dollars spent to end JLWOP and to set convicted murderers free.

Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.

Would it be true that capital punishment saves lives? Edward Koch, in his article “Death and Justice” believes it does. Koch, using common techniques to influence his audience, suggests that killers should be handled within this tried and avenged form of punishment. Koch opens his article by quoting convicted murderers Robert Lee Willie and Joseph Carl Shaw, both in the last moments of their lives pleading for the justice system to put a stop to the endless cycle of killing. Using simple logic, Koch argues that the sudden changing of the killers’ moral character is not a result of remorse for the victims, but rather an attempt to save their own lives from the killing hands of the justice system. Koch effectively uses these quotes to suggest to the reader that a killer might have thought twice about his/her own actions if the death sentence were a belief.

“Complex/Capital Case.” I stared at these words typed on my local county sheriff’s inmate directory. Above was an image of a man — face beaten and showing dozens of gang-affiliated tattoos — and I attempted to see a resemblance between his face and my own. I spent hours researching what “complex/capital case” means, and once I read the words “death penalty,” and although I knew that he had yet to be tried, what I did know was that this was the end for him. On the screen in front of me was the image of a man who was convicted of seventy-one counts of assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and attempted murder.

America is again divided by something that we need a solution for right away. Today, it is between the people who believe mandatory life in prison for juveniles should be abolished and those who believe the opposite. If a teenager committed murder and any other heinous act they indeed should be sentenced to life. We cannot let people get away with that. They took the life of another, so they should see how it feels. There are many reasons why you should believe juvenile life sentences should still be legal such as the effect it has on the victims families, the accountability these teens should have, and just how ludicrous any other counter argument can be.

Garinger was a former juvenile court judge, so Garinger is a very credible source when it comes to the topic of juvenile criminals. To support Garinger’s credible usage of ethos, he demonstrates that in 2005, Supreme Court acknowledged that even though juveniles have committed terrible crimes such as homicide “juvenile offenders cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders” (6). This technique of providing the opinions of Supreme Court helps build Garinger’s credibility, and even more so that he is was a former juvenile court judges, so he most likely has a personal relationships with the Supreme Court. Readers feel sympathy to any juvenile who have been charged as adults and been sentenced to life without parole.

This paper is aimed at raising questions on the TED talk’s subjects of injustice and how we are priming some kids for college and others for prison. Bryan Stevenson talks on the topics of injustice and poverty stating that there is a correlation between the two and he also talks about reforming our justice system which would lead to changing some very crucial amendments within our constitutional rights. The questions I raise to his statements are as follows, one… considering that the biggest statistic for the death of young black males under the age of 20 is other black males does a societal change need to be made? Two, in regards to changing the way our justice system works, would you be ok with allowing people like Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, and other psychopaths to roam freely after 20 years without the death penalty. Three, would you be willing to get rid of the 4th and 5th amendments as well as the exclusionary rule in exchange for a blanket allowance of all truthful evidence? Now in regards to Alice Goffman and her speech on College vs Prison I felt a sense of urgency to state “good, but what are the solutions?” or what do you propose we do as a society to keep our youth out of prison and get them on the track to success? Ms. Goffman’s statements were geared more towards pointing the finger rather than offering a viable solution to the problem.

Derron is also part of the estimated 250,000 juveniles who are tired, sentenced and incarcerated each year by the American Justice System, a practice that’s occurred in the United States for the past couple centuries, where children and teenagers are tried in court as adults and later sent to maximum security prisons with murderers, rapists and other violent criminals. The thrill of performing dangerous actions and the unwillingness of the consequences, a void of adult influence in the home has facilitated to an increase probability in suicide, sexual assault and the likelihood to commit another crime after release. The ineptness to hold a juvenile accountable in a safe manner can change but it’ll require the realization of the state and federal government to choose a rehabilitation recovery rather than throwing adolescents in with violent adults .

(Birmingham, Alabama) One of only a few states in the nation that fails to provide a statewide indigent defender program, Alabama also lacks post-conviction counsel for those inmates on death row. Clayton Tartt, an associate with Birmingham's Parkman White, LLP, a birmingham criminal defense firm, feels this is a critical flaw in the state's judicial system and works to provide representation to those who otherwise cannot afford it. Mr. Tartt volunteers with the Alabama Post-Conviction Relief Project to help individuals in this situation. Cody Owens of Weld Magazine recently interviewed Mr. Tartt about this issue.

Capital punishment for juveniles is one of the most controversial topics to ever be explored in society and in the criminal justice system. The death penalty is a rare occurrence amongst juveniles since it is so arguable as to whether they should be tried as adults. Lynn Cothern from the Juvenile Justice Resource Center suggests that “the primary purpose of the juvenile justice system is to hold juvenile offenders accountable for delinquent acts while providing treatment, rehabilitative services, and programs designed to prevent future involvement in law-violating behavior” (Cothern). The juvenile death penalty has been argued over for centuries and has stirred enough people to still be around today. While juveniles have been known to commit heinous crimes, sentencing a juvenile to death is an inhumane and cruel fate to serve someone who is incapable of making rational lifelong decisions, and should not be allowed in the juvenile justice system.

Many death row inmates were convicted while being defended by a court appointed lawyer who are often the worst paid and most inexperienced and least skillful lawyers. The Bar Association published guidelines for a good defense in a death penalty case”. Anti-death Penalty ( 2010)

Between 1976, when Supreme Court lifted its preclusion on capital punishment and 2000 Texas has executed 238 individuals (Walpin, 2000). Why do capital punishment cases proceed so quickly compared to other states? Brent Newton, in an article entitled “ The death penalty: Texas could learn a lot from Florida,” argues that one of the reasons to why its reoccurrences is due to Texas not providing public defender system for the underprivileged defendants, and instead relies upon court appointed attorneys who likely do not have any experience in capital punishment defenses or

On a previous but similar issue regarding the death penalty for kids, Manny was totally against it. However when it came to adults he not so sure if the same rules should apply. Unlike him, there are people who are sure on how they are planning to vote on the issue. John Benvenuti is against the death penalty for both religious reasons and based on the community of people he represents. John was impacted religiously because he attended a church program that addressed the death penalty, and it impacted him greatly. From this program, he learned that since 1973 “over 138 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence”(Life for a Life 52) showing that system is ineffective and cost many innocent lives. In addition to the reason of religious influence causing John to be opposed to the death penalty, racism in the system is also playing a role. In the district that both Manny and John represent the people think that killer only come from ghetto areas that constant of blacks, Hispanics, and white “trailer-trash”. This common presumption is rooted back to southern racism and the massive plays a large role it plays today's justice system. This claim is supported because some statics show that a, “much higher percentages of black than white get death sentences, but the real surprise is that regardless of the race of

Today, there are over three thousand prisoners on death row. “Between 1972 and 1996, 68 death row inmates were released because proof of their innocence was found” (Acker, Bohm, and Lanier 232). Only after struggling