Harvey & Sanchez

Brooklyn Harvey
Junior Sanchez
Ms. Griffin
English 1010
May 24, 2016
Death Penalty

Death has been used as a form of punishment throughout history. There have been
many changes to the original policy. In the 18th century B.C. the current law enacted on
the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Later in the 1700s in Britain, about 220 crimes
were punishable by death. Britains policies influenced Americas views on the death
penalty. Since then the death penalty keeps changing due to controversy over the topic. .
The death penalty was put into place in 1990 and has had controversy ever since. There
are many different arguments on this topic. We chose the question: is the death penalty
constitutional?
"Death Penalty." LII / Legal Information Institute. Web. 27 May 2016.
In the article Death Penalty it talks about court cases and their rulings. The
article tells you the amendment that is being questioned in the case and what the judges
decided to rule it. It also talks about how the punishment for a crime you commit cannot
be too cruel and unusual for what you did. The reader learns of the way that is most
humane to punish somebody with the death penalty. The article also talks about court

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cases where the plaintiff was let off because the death penalty was too severe for what
they did and it was unconstitutional.
The article is very credible because the court cases that are mentioned in it. The
reader sees that the Supreme Court is mentioned in the article and is automatically drawn
to believe that the article is credible. Logos is used in the article when they mention the
rulings of the cases. The reader can see the constitution is used in the deciding of the case
and believes that the piece is logical. Pathos is also used in the article when it mentions if
the death penalty is to be used for mentally handicapped people. Some readers will have a
very strong opinion on whether or not that should happen.
While reading this article there were many facts that we were faced with. That
made us take into consideration all of the rulings that we read about. We got a better
understanding of all of the rules that come with the death penalty. This article relates to
our other articles because it gives examples of court cases and it talks about the
amendments at question when it comes to the death penalty. The article did not have an
opinion of whether or not the death penalty is constitutional; it just gave facts about the
death penalty.
"Death Penalty Focus : Deterrence." Death Penalty Focus : Deterrence. Web. 19 May
2016. <http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=82>.

In the article Death Penalty Focus: Deterrence from deathpenalty.org it talks

about the death penalty and its relation to deterring crime. It shows through studies and
statistics that the states with a death penalty have a higher murder rate than the states

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without. Deathpenalty.org gave examples of states without the death penalty having lower
murder rates.
This article is a credible source because it gives several research studies from
highly notable organizations. Ethos is shown through using many of these names. For
example it shares a survey from the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of
Criminal Justice Sciences, and the Law and Society Association. It said over 80%
believe the existing research fails to support a deterrence justification for the death
penalty. The intended audience would be anyone that believes that the death penaltys
purpose is to deter crime. Logos is represented through many statistics and research
shown in the article. These statistics make the reader shocked to see the reality of this
problem. Pathos is used effectively in this article.
After reading this article and seeing all of the statistics it makes us feel like the
death penalty is not a good way to deter crime. The article didnt give many facts on the
other point of view and just stuck with one side. The article was very opinionated so if we
saw other perspectives of the issue we might feel different. We probably wouldnt decide
to use this article because it was very opinionated and didnt give very different facts than
the other articles.

"Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional? - Death Penalty

ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. Web. 27 May 2016.

In the article Is the death penalty unconstitutional? by ProCon.org it talks about

all of the amendments that bring controversy to this law. The specific amendments are the

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5th, 8th, and the 14th. The article gives specific examples of pros and cons to each of the
amendments. It also brings up the question if the death penalty should be used on
juveniles and mentally handicapped people. There are many cases from the supreme court
that are talked about also. It gives examples of what the judges said in the certain cases.
The article is very credible because there are supreme court cases in it. The
supreme court is the highest court there is and it gives quotes directly from it so the
reader knows the article is credible. Pathos is used in the article when it brings up if the
death penalty should be used on mentally handicapped people and juveniles. The reader
may have an opinion on whether this is right or not. Logos is represented in the article
when it takes quotes from the Supreme Court cases.
This article gave us a new view on all of the ways that you can look at this law.
We read all of the people that were pro and con for the topics and both had credible
people so it made us think if we agree with them or not. This relates to other pieces that
we have read because it talks about the amendments that are at question with the death
penalty. It gives opposing views on all of the amendments is talked about so it was a good
article to read. It gave us a better understanding of the question at hand.

"Part I: History of the Death Penalty." DPIC. Web. 27 May 2016.

In Part 1: History of the Death Penalty the reader learns about the way that the
death penalty has evolved. The article also talks about all of the things that were
punishable by death in the early years of the death penalty. Eventually the death penalty
came to America, and people had differing opinions about it. America began to abolish

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the death penalty in colonial times and tried to make the penalties for some crimes less
cruel. The death penalty fluctuated in the amount of people punished by it every year and
it continues to do so.
The Death Penalty Information Center is a credible source because the death
penalty is all they deal with. The reader can trust the statistics in their article for that
reason alone. Logos is represented in this article because all the statistics it talks about.
Pathos is not represented in this article very much. The only way that pathos would be
represented would be the people reading it that have a strong opinion on whether the
death penalty is constitutional or not.
While reading this article we realized the importance of the history of the death
penalty. Where it came from and what crimes could be punishable by death. We learned
that people have always had opposing views on the idea of death penalty. It relates to our
other articles because we now know how people in the past have reacted to the death
penalty and whether or not they thought it was constitutional. It does not contrast with
any of our other articles. This piece was more informational and did not have a side it
was fighting for.

"States With and Without the Death Penalty." DPIC. Web. 26 May 2016.
<http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-and-without-death-penalty>.

States With and Without the Death Penalty shared lists of all the states who
currently have the death penalty as a law, and all the states that have abolished it. The
article specifically broke down the years that the certain states abolished the death
penalty and a broad reason. This article showed a visual example of the United States and

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had different states colored based on their status in regards to the death penalty. This
helped show in a different way all of the states that decided to abolish the law.
Many facts were listed in this article. Logos was portrayed the best in this article
because it gave lists and graphs showing specific facts. The article did not use pathos. It
specifically just stated what is and what isnt. There was no emotion involved in this
article. Ethos could be considered because the article had many categories and appeared
to look very credible and factual. For the most part this article just gave simple facts and
used logos very effectively.
This article was very vague. It gave the bare facts of which states do or do not
have the death penalty currently. We probably would not choose to use much information
from this article, however some things could be helpful. For example, the numbers of
states that have the death penalty opposed to the number of states that do not. The
website itself was efficient, however this particular article didnt give quite enough
information. It would be helpful if it went into more detail of the reasons why the specific
states abolished the death penalty.

"ThisNation.com--Is the Death Penalty Constitutional?" ThisNation.com--Is the Death

Penalty Constitutional? Web. 24 May 2016.

In Is the death penalty Constitutional? it talks about whether or not the death
penalty can be considered constitutional based on the amendments of the constitution.
Specifically, it talks about the 8th amendment and the 5th amendment. The article gave
decisions of previous court cases that dealt with the death penalty and how they affected

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the previous policies. They define the pieces that make up the 8th and 5th amendments.
Toward the end of the article they state ideas to leave the reader thinking about the
problem.
Pathos is used very effectively in this article. There are many ideas in this article
that strike emotional responses and opinions of the readers. For example, it talks about
the 8th amendment and if the death penalty is considered cruel or unusual. Logos is
used because it uses a lot of Court cases and their rulings. There were many facts that
supported trying to decide if the death penalty is just. Ethos is used because it mentions
the constitution and the Framers. Many people agree with how the Framers set up the
government and this makes the article credible.
This article made us think about if the death penalty violates the 8th amendment.
This article gave a lot of good facts that could be used. It is similar to the other articles
we read in that it gave specific examples of court cases and their rulings. This article was
good because it wasnt opinionated, it gave facts about the death penalty and past cases
that dealt with the amendments at question. This article did a good job at making us think
about the different things to consider about the death penalty like if it is just, or if it
violates any amendment.