Carmen F.

Sanchez
Rws 1301
October 11, 2016
Annotated Bibliography
Adams, L. (2005). Death by Discretion: Who Decides Who Lives and Dies in the United States
of America?. American Journal of Criminal Law, 32(3), 381-401.
There are many things that come into making the decision of whether someone is
deserving of the placement in death row. Although itd be assumed that the decision
would be influence free and that the sentencing would ultimately be serving justice, but
that is not always the case, in face there are many influences that would trigger a
prosecutor toward making sure a convict is faced with the death penalty or vice versa,
influences include racial background and ethnicity. There have been cases where race was
a strong influence on the ultimate determination is someone was whether going to be
executed or not. What I hope to achieve with this article is to show the unjust decisions
that are made when determining if someone is deserving of the death punishment or not
and that there has been people who could have walked freely but their background was a
strong influence within their conviction.
Banner, S. (2000). Too Close for Insight. Reviews in American History 28(3), 460-464 The Johns
Hopkins University Press. Retrieved October 11, 2016, from Project MUSE database
This book is mainly about what influences the likelihood of a criminal being sentenced to
death row. It can obviously be determined by the seriousness of the crime, but in some

cases, it has been slightly determined by the racial ethnicity of the convict, which shows
that not much has changed when it comes to racial discrimination. Also in the book, it is
pointed out that the death penalty could easily be compared to slavery because of the lack
of humanity when it is time to execute the person. With this book, I hope to bring
awareness to why the death sentence should be reconsidered. There are many alternatives
that could be used as a form of punishment such as a life time sentence without any
possibility of parole, this would be significantly cheaper and the state would not run the
risk of accidentally killing an innocent person, because its been known to happen.
Brook Dan, Ph.D., Kill the Death Penalty:10 Arguments Against Capital Punishment, (July
15,

2014).RetrievedOctober7,2016,from
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/07/15/kill-death-penalty-10-argumentsagainst-capital-punishment
Many things are pointed out in the article regarding the cons and effects of the death
penalty. The death penalty itself could be considered a form a cruel and unusual
punishments because of the methods and steps that come into place when

executing a

convict. Aside from the punishment affecting the convict directly it also has a

great impact

on society. For example, society is being exposed to a form of violence which

could lead

to a negative and aggressive response. The death penalty also has possibilities of a

mistake

being made such as executing someone who is later found to be innocent, once

the person

is killed there is no way of fixing that mistake. Also, this form of punishment is

significantly more expensive compared to a convict that is sentenced to life in prison.

What I hope to achieve with this is to bring awareness to the fact that the death penalty is
causing

more harm than benefits. The public lacks the sufficient knowledge on the topic

and its effects on society that lead them into believing that the execution of a convict will benefit
them in the long run.
Death penalty information center, (August 18, 2016) States with and without the death penalty,
Retrieved October 6, 2016, from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-and-withoutdeath-penalty
There is a list of states that have abolished the death penalty because they believed that
this

form was unconstitutional such as; Rhode Island, New York, New Mexico, Connecticut,
Nebraska and Delaware. Although there have been states that declared death row

as

unconstitutional there are still states that believe this form of punishment is best to

maintain

criminal activity under control such that it would deter people from wanting to

commit

such crimes, states include; Texas, Arizona, California, Florida, etc. What I hope

to

accomplish with this research is why certain states decided to abolish the death

penalty,

the one who already abolished the punishment all agreed that it can be considered

unconstitutional depending on the way it is seen and interpreted.

McLaughlin, J. (2014). The price of justice: interest-convergence, cost, and the anti-death
penalty

movement. Northwestern University Law Review, 108(2), 675-710. Retrieved

October

16,2016, from EbscoHost database

This article talks about how the government is not willing to change their minds on the
death penalty because many debates are based on how the process of goes against moral
which is not something that the government itself is not concerned about. So, to gain the
government's approval the benefits should be stated, such as how they would be saving

money overall because the death penalty is quite expensive. What I hope to accomplish
with this article is encourage people to look for other reasons other than moral to
convince

those with power to abolish the death penalty. The reason for this is because not

everyone

has the same view on the topic so rather than simply state your views and

concerns state

those that could influence your audience in this case it would be the

government, their

main concern is the money and what they could do to cut back on

expenses.
Pojman, L. P., & Reiman, J. H. (1998). The Death Penalty: For and Against. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Retrieved October 6,2016, from EbscoHost
database
Two philosophers offer their opinion based on whether the death penalty should go on or
if it should be abolished. Louis P. Pojman is a firm believer in the principle of
retribution,

He believes that our actions are deserving of either a reward or punishment,

therefore we

should accept the consequence of our actions. On the other hand, Jeffrey

Reiman believes

that the act of execution has not shown substantial result in the deterrence

of crimes and also that if we were to get rid of the death penalty we would show the intolerance
for

violence no matter what act is deserving of it. With this book, I hope to show the different
moral inclination for agreeing with the death penalty as well as why it should be

disagreed

with it.

Rethinking the death penalty [Video file]. (2000). Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://0fod.infobase.com.lib.utep.edu/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=104347&xtid=11258

Many politicians have changed their mind about the death penalty. They believe that
when

executing someone there is always the risk of making a mistake that could potentially

take

the life of an innocent person, many politicians are not willing or capable of coping with
this fault. There have been cases where people were wrongly convicted and are

ultimately
mistakes

set free because new evidence has come out showing there was a mistake made,
that include DNA evidence. What I hope to achieve with this source is

prove that executing a person runs the risk of ultimately committing murder against what could
be an innocent

person, that is a mistake that could never be fixed. This risk can only be

avoided if the capital punishment were to be completely abolished.

Soss, J., Langbein, L., & Metelko, A. R. (2003). Why Do White Americans Support the Death
Penalty? Journal of Politics, Retrieved October 11, 2016 from EbscoHost database
This Journal further supports the idea behind the fact that racial discrimination does occur
during the time a convict is sentenced to death. The author explains how aside from
simply being a racial problem he mentioned that white Americans are more likely to agree with
the death penalty because they believe that it will bring order to the country along with
potential deterrence from criminal activity. They are also inclined to go for the death
penalty because it represents the true American ideology. With this journal, I hope to
strengthen my research when it comes to setting our moral values straight. When there is,
a convict placed in death row the idea of this punishment being morally wrong is not one
that gets paid too much attention, political values are what people are more inclined to
believe in especially those who believe that this form of punishment will potentially bring
order to the state they live in and eventually to the country itself.

Stevenson B, JD, Close to death, 2004, Reflections on Race and Capital Punishment in
America," from Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment?
The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case, Retrieved October 6,2016,
from http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000
In Bryan Stevensons article close to death there is an explication based on the
immorality behind taking a criminal down death row. He claims that killing a convict has
little to no relevance to the fact that the criminal is deserving of death itself, no matter the
severity of the crime committed. He also brings out the point that most of the
time if not

all the time the system tends to treat you better depending on the wealth you

possess. I

hope that this will strengthen my point within my research paper

pertaining to the lack of

system lacks the effort of

justice within the system. For being such a sensitive topic the
making sure criminals are given the right punishment