Group

James' pic 1

"Capital punishment: An introduction | That Religious Studies Website." //Welcome to our website! : That Religious Studies Website//. Web. 07 Dec. 2009. .

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"Religion and Politics by State - The New Christians." //Blogs - Beliefnet.com//. Web. 04 Dec. 2009. .

source 1 "Documents: Suspect didn't think gun was loaded - The Frederick News-Post Online." //The Frederick News-Post Online - Frederick County Maryland Daily Newspaper//. Web. 04 Dec. 2009. .

-murder in knoxville -earlier this week a man shot his brother -the victim had been drinking -the victim was making alot of noise -the suspect had to get up early the next day for work -the suspect came down from the upstairs and argued with his brother -the suspect had brought a gun down with him -this was not the first time he has threatined his brother with a gun -the victim aparently said "pull the trigger, i dare you" -the victim also pulled the gun up to himself while it was in the suspects hand. -the suspect claims he didnt know the gun was loaded -the suspect is charged with 1st and 2nd degree murder JM

source 2 "BalancedPolitics.org - Death Penalty (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against)." //BalancedPolitics.org - Free Balanced, Non-Partisan Discussion of Political & Social Issues for Debate (Pros and Cons - Decision Making Politics)//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. .


 * 1) Offers closure to the families of the victims.
 * 2) Deters crime.
 * 3) It offers justice
 * 4) We are showing more sympathy for criminals than victims.
 * 5) Deters for prisoners already serving a life sentence for committing crime in prison.
 * 6) DNA testing can now effectively eliminate most uncertainty as to a person's guilt or innocence.
 * 7) Prisoner parole or escapes can offer criminals another chance to commit dangerous crimes.
 * 8) It helps solve to the problem of overpopulation in prisons.
 * 9) It offers another bargaining ploy in the plea bargain process, which will cut costs in court.

source 3

"FOXNews.com - Former Gov. Ryan Found Guilty in Corruption Trial - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum." //Breaking News | Latest News | Current News - FOXNews.com//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. .


 * 1) Governor George Ryan, found guilty in a corruption trial.
 * 2) once praised for eliminating the death penalty in Illinois
 * 3) promised to appeal
 * 4) U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said Ryan’s actions were a "a low water mark of public service."
 * 5) Chicago’s FBI office leader Robert grant expressed that, “no one is above the law”
 * 6) Ryan faces up to 20 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy
 * 7) has 22 other charges
 * 8) Case was a land side loss for Ryan.
 * 9) 6 month trial
 * 10) states biggest corruption trial in decades
 * 11) Ryan was rewarded for his "help" with trips, gifts and "loans".
 * 12) "We're going to begin working immediately on post-trial motions to try to get this verdict overturned," Ryan’s attorney said.
 * 13) the law firm for Ryan defended him for free
 * 14) an estimated 10 million dollars
 * 15) crash caused by inexperienced truck driver
 * 16) crash in 1994 killed 6 children
 * 17) Truck drivers obtained license illegally, though brides.
 * 18) thousands of dollars in bride money went to Ryan’s campaign fund
 * 19) Seventy-nine former state officials, lobbyists, truck drivers and others have been since charged
 * 20) Farwell was a star witnesses against Ryan and the author of a 1994 memo that prosecutor Patrick Collins called "the Magna Carta" of the racketeering scheme.
 * 21) told Ryan replace inspector general Dean Bauer with someone who "won't ask about FR tickets"
 * 22) dean Bauer plead guilty to obstruction of justice
 * 23) covered up scandals to save Ryan’s personal and political shame
 * 24) despite trial Ryan was nominated for a Nobel peace prize for opposing the death penalty
 * 25) reinstated death penalty in 2000
 * 26) days before leaving office, pardoned every one on death row
 * 27) instead they were all sentence to life in prison
 * 28) 167 cleared

source 4

"George Ryan -." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. .
 * 1) Governor George Ryan
 * 2) Illinois governor
 * 3) governor for 1999 to 2003
 * 4) secretary of state fro 1991 to 1999
 * 5) lieutenant governor 1983 to 1991
 * 6) republican

Bulliet, Richard W., Pamela Kyle Crossley, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, and David Northrup. //The Earth And Its Peoples A Global History//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Print.

source 5 1. "eye for an eye" in Hammurabi's code first 2. also found later in the old tesament of the bible

source 6 Josh's

"Death Penalty Debates - Pros and Cons." //Social Issues - Home//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. . > JC
 * Timothy McVeigh bombed a building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Killed 168 people, some of which were children at a day care. His only regrets were that he didn’t knock the building down.
 * Ensures that a murderer will never kill again
 * Provides closure for the victims family
 * It sends a powerful moral message, acting as a deterrent to any potential murderers
 * It presents the fact that the life a murderer took was so precious and the crime so horrific that he forfeits his own right to live.
 * It should only however be used for justice and not revenge.
 * A murder is far worse than the death penalty itself, but it represents the only just punishment available.
 * There estimates that each execution led to an average of 18 fewer murders
 * Whites are twice as likely to be executed as blacks
 * Whites are executed 12 months faster

source 7 //Death Penalty - ProCon.org//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. []. JC
 * The US executed 1,057 by lethal injection from 1977 to 2006.
 * The death penalty can be applied for treason, espionage, and other crimes. Not just for murder.
 * It is a way of keeping law and order by deterring people from doing any additional crimes.
 * The death penalty costs less than imprisonment for life, and life is a privileged that some should not have.
 * Some believe in “an eye for an eye” and some criminals do crimes so appalling that execution is the only way to prevent further disaster.
 * Life without parole (LWOP) costs $1.2 million-$3.6 million more than an equivalent death penalty case.
 * Up-front cost for the death penalty costs more than LWOP, but over-time LWOP costs a lot more.

source 8 //Facts On File Online Databases//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. []. JC
 * In the 19th century anti-capital-punishment groups slowed down the drive for death penalty laws.
 * In the 1930’s to the 1940’s about 100 people were executed every year.
 * In the 1960’s the numbers dropped to single digits every year.
 * By the early 1970’s there was an unofficial end to the death penalty.
 * The court noted that the death penalty was not unconstitutional

source 9 "Federal Death Penalty Cases." //U.S. Courts | The Federal Judiciary//. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. [].

(Attorney and Non-Attorney) || JC
 * ~  || Case type || Average amount of non-attorney comp. || Average total cost of Representation
 * Non-Capital || Homicides || $1,515 || $9,159 ||
 * Capital || Auth. Denied || $10,094 || $55,773 ||
 * ~  || Auth. Granted || $51,889 || $218,113 ||
 * ~  || Capital Trial || $53,143 || $269,139 ||
 * ~  || Plea || $51,028 || $192,333 ||
 * ~  || Drug Cases || $52,218 || $244,186 ||

source 10

matt's "The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty: What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Capital Punishment? | Suite101.com." //American Affairs: Discussion of US domestic and foreign policy, military spending, George Bush's legacy, US economic trends, Democrat and Republican hopefuls, Congress, Senate, and the vote. | Suite101.com//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. .


 * the death of the criminal gives closure to the victim's and their families
 * The death penalty acts as a deterrent to criminals who may commit a capital offence
 * The judicial system says that the penalty should fit the crime
 * If a person violently murders another person, or many individuals then the penalty that fits the crime is death
 * In some anti-death campaigners people on death row died befor they could be proved innocent
 * The death penalty leaves no chance for the person to commit another offence while they are in prison for live
 * The cost of putting a person to death is also much cheaper then leaving someone in prison
 * The death penalty also would help to prevent over crowded prisons
 * deturence is also a reson for the death penalty, it is shown that while the death penalty was suspended the murder rates when up
 * John Allen Muhammad better known as the beltway sniper was executed and many people feel that it was appropriet for his crimes
 * Serial killer are put to death twice as offten as murders the court feels that sense they have killed more people they deserve to be put to death
 * In the case of Furman v. Georgia the supreme court suspended the death penalty
 * In the case of Gregg v. Georgia the supreme court reinstated the death penalty
 * The supreme court said that they reinstaded the death penalty due to the nature of the man
 * In a 1995 survey they found that the top two things that police want deturded by capital punishment is drug abuse and murders of any kind
 * most police officers feel this way because they feel that drug cantribute to many homicides
 * Texas has the most exocutions per year

soece 11

"Pro Capital Punishment Page." //Wesley Lowe - The Necromancer Wars//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. [].


 * A large number of people feel that the punishment for murder shouldn't be death, but for a serial killers it should be
 * The urban areas that do have capital punishment feel that it is appropriate, due to the the fact that they usally have a much higher rate of crime then rural areas
 * Life in prison without parole also gives the person more oppertunitys to commit more crimes like murdering other inmates and guards
 * Due to changes in some states laws even imates who were sentenced to life without parole get the chance to get parole
 * Some people also feel that putting someone to death is immoral and against their religion but in the original Hebrew text, it states: "Thou shall not murder." whitch by defionition means an unlawful killing of a person with malice and aforethought
 * Some groups of people say that innocent people maybe exocuted befor they can be proved innocent, but there is aproxomitly 2% of faulse imprisonments in the U.S
 * The death penalty also lowers the rate of murders committed in side of prison walls due to the fact that the "most dangerous criminals" have been sentanced to capital punishment
 * Prison is also ment to be more like a rehibilitation center more then a place to keep people untill they die
 * Prison is to make ex-convicts more likely not to committ crimes outside of prison
 * During the temporary suspension on capital punishment from 1972-1976 murder rates for the country went from 150 murders per capita to nearly 200 murders per capita
 * Dawud Mu'Min who was sentenced to a 48-year sentence for the murder of a cab driver when he escaped a road work gang and stabbed to death a storekeeper in a 1988 robbery. Fortunately, there is now no chance of Mu'Min commiting murder again. He was executed by the state of Virginia
 * A man named Willie Horton was acused of first degree murder. He the fled the state of Massachusetts, eventually arriving in Maryland, where, he pistol-whipped and knifed a young man, then bound and gagged him
 * There are also many more acounts of cases like this where the person was given a change to commit more crime
 * It also costs between 1.2 million and 3.6 million dollers for a life without parole case
 * Many people say that capital punishment is a crule and unusual punishment, but murdering is also crule and unusual
 * Some people feel that in certain citys, where many major crimes acccrue there should be a capital punishment
 * Take, for example, a murderer who took the life of a teenager. The parents of the victim will be indirectly financing his life by paying taxs
 * Some feel that capital punishment is unjust but the old testament is an eye for an eye
 * Many people also say that "life is sacred" but murdering is also taking anothers life
 * People sentenced to life in prison without parole feel they have nothing else to live for so, either committ suicade or murder other inmates or guards
 * Justice is also suppost to be about equality so, if someone murders another person then equily that person should be but to death to
 * The death penalty has been forced by all states untill 1972 where it was suspended but was reasstablished in 1976
 * 629 inmates were on death row when the death penalty was suspended

souce 12

paige's "Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty and Capital Punishment." //Liberal & Progressive Politics & Perspectives//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. .


 * the theory of retribution is based on the Old Testement as it's call for "an eye for an eye"
 * Crimes that carry the dealth penalty in America are treason and murder along with theft
 * 60% of americans do not believe that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder
 * United States in 2008,there were 37 executions
 * China in 2008, there were 1,718 executed (the most executions in any country in 2008)
 * 34 states legalized capital punishment
 * From 1976 to Oct 2009, 1,177 were executed in the U.S
 * Each state has regulations and different age limits and methods for execution
 * Other countries around the world carry out the death penalty because cowardice, desertion and munity
 * At least 8,846 people were sentenced to death in 52 countries
 * 2,390 people were known to have been executed in 25 countries
 * No executions occured in the U.S between 1967-1976
 * In 1972 the Sumpreme Court nullified the death penalty by putting those on death row, into a lifetime in prison
 * In 1976 another Supreme Court ruling found capital punishment Consitutional
 * 34 states approved of the death penalty
 * The Clark County Indiana Prosecuting Attorny believes "In my view of society has not only the right, but the duty to act in self defense to protect the innocent"
 * ReligeousTolerance.org says that "about 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times"
 * In the Depression era (1930's) the amount of executions intensified then dropped imensely during the 1950's and 60's
 * Capital Punishment- the premeditated and planned taking of a human life by a goverment in response to crime comitted by that legally convicted person

source 13

"Death Penalty (Capital Punishment) in the United States - Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty." //US Politics - Guide To The US presidential election, legislation, and political news and opinion//. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. .


 * More than 3,000 prisoners were serving death row sentences in the U.S December 2008
 * Nationwide juries have been delivering less death sentences since the late 90's