Making a Change
Makinga Change
Makinga Change: Annotated Bibliography
Revisedthesis: Capital punishment is an inhuman treatment by the criminaljustice system that can lead to the killing of innocent people, whichmeans that it should be illegalized.
Fridell,R. (2013). Capitalpunishment.New York: Benchmark Books.
Thepurpose of the book is to address different views that are given bypeople who support as well as those who oppose the use of capitalpunishment in the justice system. Its supporters advance an argumentthat it deters crime by instilling fear in potential criminals. Thearticle also provides a discussion of several factors that can beused to prove that capital punishment aims at harassing the accusedwhile failing to address critical issues that affects the society. Itis also associated with the issues of bias, where African Americansare affected disproportionately. In addition, some innocent peopleare sentenced to death due to errors in the prosecution or the lackof capacity to defend themselves adequately (Fridell, 2013).
Thebook is a credible source that addresses one of the controversialissues affecting the modern world. Although most of the ideasincluded in the book are supported by data from other sources, thereare several instances where Friendell presented his opinions. Thisintroduced the risk of bias.
However,the book has a lot of useful information about the merits as well asthe demerits of capital punishment. Its content will be used toadvance an argument that the death penalty is inhuman since it failsto resolve the key factors that lead to the occurrence of crime inthe society.
Honeyman,J. & Ogloff, J. (2015). Capital punishment: Arguments for lifeand death. CanadianJournal of Behavioral Science, 28(1), 27-35.
Thearticle presents the findings of a study that focused on the effectof argument position on sentence recommendation. The research wasbased on a sample of 305 participants, who were university studentsaged between 17 and 54 years. The findings of this research showedthat only arguments that were based on economic, retribution, andimpossibility had the capacity to influence a recommendation in favorof the death sentence. The results also showed that no arguments thatwere used to persuade the study subjects to select life sentence hada significant impact (Honeyman & Ogloff, 2015).
Theuse of a qualitative methodology to study the concept of capitalpunishment helped the authors to conduct an in-depth investigation ofthe underlying issue. However, this methodology is associated withexcess involvement of the research in the process of data collection,which limits the reliability of the data.
Thefindings reported in the article are based on a scientific study,which makes the article a useful source. Its content will be used toadvance an argument that false witness identification can result inthe wrongful conviction of innocent people.
Kreuter,W. (2014). The Innocent Executed. JusticeDenied, the Magazine for the Wrongly Convicted.Retrieved from <http://www.justicedenied.org/executed.htm>
Thearticle addresses the issue of the death sentences that are madeagainst innocent people. The author advances an argument that capitalpunishment is a form of inhuman treatment because there is a highprobability of killing people who are innocent. This fact has beenproven by the increases in cases of death sentence that have beenreversed by the courts. This suggests that there could be more peoplewho have been killed under the court`s order in the past. The authorattributes this challenge to the fact that the justice system lacksmechanisms to review pronouncement of innocence or guilt (Kreuter,2014).
Thearticle is based on specific cases of individuals who have beensentenced to death and then set free by the court. However, most ofits content is based on the opinion of the author, which introducesthe risk of bias. This limits the reliability of the article. Thecontent of the article is useful and it will be used to support anidea that capital punishment can be based on erroneous prosecutionprocess. This can lead to the execution of innocent people.
Potter,N. T. (2012). Kantand capital punishment today. TheJournal of Value Inquiry,36(2), 267-282.
Thearticle provides the analysis of the opinion of Kant about the use ofthe death penalty to punish the perpetrators of heinous crime. Kantsupported an argument that people who are found guilty of murderingothers should be punished through the death penalty. This philosopherbelieved that death sentence was the only kind of punishment thatcould match the behavior of a murderer. Kant’s argument is based onthe concept of retributive justice, which emphasizes on the need togive punishment that is commensurate with the type of crimecommitted, instead of rehabilitating offenders (Potter,2012).
Theauthor addresses the purpose of the study by review article publishedby other scholars. This method denied the author the chance todetermine and control the quality of data used to make theconclusions included in the article about capital punishment.However, the literature review methodology enabled the author togather the views presented by many scholars.
Althoughthe article has some weaknesses regarding the methodology used, itscontent is useful. It will be used to discuss one of the keycounterargument that is provided by those who believe that capitalpunishment is appropriate. This counterarguent is founded on theconcept of retributive justice.
References
Fridell,R. (2013). Capitalpunishment.New York: Benchmark Books.
Honeyman,J. & Ogloff, J. (2015). Capital punishment: Arguments for lifeand death. CanadianJournal of Behavioral Science, 28(1),27-35.
Kreuter,W. (2014). The Innocent Executed. JusticeDenied, the Magazine for the Wrongly Convicted.Retrieved from http://www.justicedenied.org/executed.htm
Potter,N. T. (2012). Kantand capital punishment today. TheJournal of Value Inquiry, 36(2),267-282.
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