Major Writing #1

BreAnna Montoya

July 7, 2014

Mrs. Kamri Goff

Major Writing Assignment #1

Davis, Nathan (2011) Viewpoint: Death penalty should be abolished. http://www.wsusignpost.com/2011/09/22/viewpoint-12-5699#.U7tI8JUg_IU.

This article is following a controversial execution of a man in Georgia in 2011. The article sates that a lot of people who were on death row, are being exonerated due to advances in technology and evidence. Most people think the death penalty should be abolished. The article references the ALCU which thinks the death penalty has no place in a civilized country. The article is not saying that opposing the death penalty doesn’t mean that you would deny conviced murders of punishment, it means people think there could be something else that they could do.

Ellsworth, P. C. and Gross, S. R. (1994), Hardening of the Attitudes: Americans' Views on the Death Penalty. Journal of Social Issues, 50: 19–52. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1994.tb02409.x 

This article states that the death penalty support has increased since 1966, which was when supporters were outnumbered by opponents. In the 1990’s the support was at a record high. Research has determined that most peoples attitudes towards the death penalty are based on emotion rather than information or rational argument. Death penalty support has risen for most of the major felonies. No matter what someone’s stance may be, most still oppose the death penalty for the mentally retarded.

Cohn, Steven F. Barkan, Steven E. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency May 1994 vol. 31 no. 2 202-209 http://jrc.sagepub.com/content/31/2/202.short 

This article states that whites more than blacks support the death penalty. There has been little research to investigate this difference. There is data from the 1990 General society survey that states whites supported the punishment as its associated with prejudice against blacks.

Donohue, John and Justin J. Wolfers. "The Death Penalty: No Evidence For Deterrence," The Economists' Voice, 2006, v3(5,Apr), Article 3. http://www.nber.org/papers/w11982

This article talks about whether or not the death penalty saves lives. There has been some recent interest, at this time in 2006, as there were lots of papers written during that time and currently. The article assesses the time series evidence, comparing the homicides and executions in the US and Canada and within the US between executing and non-executing states. It analyzes the judicial experiments, and the execution and homicide rates since 1934.

Naci Mocan & Kaj Gittings, 2010. "The Impact of Incentives on Human Behavior: Can We Make it Disappear? The Case of the Death Penalty," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Crime: Lessons for and from Latin America, pages 379-418 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. http://www.nber.org/papers/w12631

This article states that decades of research shows that criminal behavior responds to incentives, non-economists think that humans are not rational enough to make decisions about benefits engaging in crime. The article also states that research should not be driven by personal beliefs. It states that Mocan and Gittings provide evidence that people react to incentives induced by capital punishment. Research found that the deterrent effect of the death penalty show strong feelings which could be due to political, ideological, religious or personal beliefs. The article also states do not mean that capital punishment is good or bad.

Isaac Ehrlich 1975 The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: A Question of Life and Death American Economic Review, vol. 65 no. 3, June 1975. http://www.nber.org/papers/w0018

This article talks the legitimacy or propriety of the death penalty which is an argument that can be as old as the death penalty itself, which also includes completely abolishing it. The philosophical and moral arguments, whether they be for or against it, have remain unchanged since the beginning of the debate. There is one issue that has been outstanding is the subject of increased investigation; due to the objective nature and dominant role it has played in shaping the cases against the death penalty.

Donohue, John and Justin J. Wolfers. "The Death Penalty: No Evidence For Deterrence," The Economists' Voice, 2006, v3(5,Apr), Article 3. http://www.nber.org/papers/w11982 .

This article talks about whether or not the death penalty saves lives. There have been multiple papers on this issue showing substantial deterrent of effect of capital punishment. There are various approaches that have been used to asses that which the paper discusses, testing the inferences. They analyze the effects of judicial experiments provided by Furman and Gregg decisions and assess the relationship between execution and homicide rates in state panel data in 1934.

Reggio, Michael H. History of the Death Penalty 1995-2014 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/history.html .

This article talks about the history of the death penalty and goes as far back as 18^th century BC, where the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes, although murder was not one of them. The first death was recorded in 16^th century BC Egypt where someone was accused of magic and ordered to take his own life. The first recorded execution in English American colonies was 1608 when George Kendall of Virginia was killed for supposedly plotting to betray the British to the Spanish.

Head, Tom. Types of Executions http://civilliberty.about.com/od/capitalpunishment/ig/Types-of-Executions/ .

This article goes through the different types of capital punishment and the different ways people are executed. It states the rulers decided how people would be executed like, boiling them in oil, throwing them in snake pits, dragging them under boats, flaying them, poisoning them, burying them alive, drawing and quartering them, etc. The way people are currently executed for the death penalty is less gruesome, the most common is lethal injection. Very few use the gas chamber and the electric chair anymore.

White, Deborah. Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty. http://usliberals.about.com/od/deathpenalty/i/DeathPenalty.htm.

This article talks about the pros and cons of the death penalty. Most people who are against capital punishment think the death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. They think its premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being. 13,000 people have been executed since colonial times. The 1930’s, The Depression Era, saw a historic peak in executions.