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1. Curiosity Question: Is the death penalty always accurate.

2. Article Question(s):
should we put their blood on our hands.

3. Research Path
why aren't all death penalty accurate.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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1. Curiosity Questions:  what is the percentage of correct vs non correct cases

2. Article Question(s):  1996 slaying of a gun dealer and his family during a robbery, was the first to die despite the vociferous objections of his victims' relatives. The court vacated Mr. Lee's stay of execution around 2 a.m. on July 14; Mr. Lee was declared dead by 8:07 a.m.

3. Research Path: Why are we still doing death penalty.

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why isn't the death penalty always correct.

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why isn't the death penalty always correct.

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1. Curiosity Question:  why did i government think this was okay to expand on.

2. Article Question(s): Enforcement Act of 1994 expanded the federal death penalty to some 60 additional crimes, including several that didn't involve murder.

3. Research Path : How has the death penalty expanded

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Why do we still contiue the death penalty

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Why do we still contiue the death penalty

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1. Curiosity Questions:
What was the worse way to kill someone in the trials.
2. Article Question(s):
Thanks in part to DNA evidence exonerating more than a hundred Americans wrongfully sent to death row, the broad public is questioning the logic of the death penalty itself.
3. Research Path: When did the death penalty begin.

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1. Curiosity Questions: Does what we say stand with the death penalty.

2. Article Question(s): Captain George Kendall becomes the first recorded execution in the new colonies, in 1608.
3. Research Path: The death penalty drug is being harder to receive.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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1. Curiosity Question(s). Does suffer and pain really cause healthy deeds.

2. Article Question(s).  States are increasingly pressed for ways to carry out the death penalty because of problems obtaining the drugs they long have used.
3. Research Path: The cost for death penalty is cheaper than keeping them as prisoners

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3 Reasons to Get Rid of the Death Penalty

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There are at least 10 executions scheduled to take place in the United States before the end of the year. Since the Supreme Court re-allowed executions in 1976, about 1,400 people have been executed.

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It is cheaper and more humane to execute people.

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It is cheaper and more humane to execute people.

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the amount of time and money spent on taking a person’s life is greater than keeping them in prison. let’s reflect on how some executions actually occur.Often prisoners are woken with no knowledge they are to be killed, taken to a remote location, tied to a post and shot in the chest. If they don’t die, a captain takes a pistol and shoots them in the head. For hangings, people are sometimes strapped to a steel board to stop them moving as they are wheeled up to a noose.

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Campaigner Michael Hayworth answers some of the tougher questions - like why it is fundamentally important to abolish the death penalty?
Anti-death penalty campaigners can rattle off 25 different reasons why we need to abolish the death penalty: its cruel, degrading, inhumane, what about families, it's just wrong and world peace.

Most of us can do this so quickly that we cause a small whirlpool in the organic latte that we proudly paid $4.80 for at a garage in the industrial estates of inner western Sydney.

Despite the overwhelming global trend against executions, a number of reasons for the death penalty continue to come up. Here is my attempt to respond to them.

1. We need to be 'tough on crime'

Everyone agrees that crime is bad and we need to stop it. This seems sensible and logical in every way, until we ask the question: do we need the death penalty to be 'tough' on crime? The answer is no, we don't.

The fallacy that crueler punishments deter crime doesn't take into account that there are complex social and economic factors that drive crime rates, and secondly, that criminals don't often plan on getting caught or think through all the consequences of their actions.

"Since Canada stopped executing the murder rate has dropped by 44 per cent"

Simplified statistics don't help either.

Did you know that since Canada stopped executing the murder rate has dropped by 44 per cent? Does this mean that stopping executions will stop murders? Of course not, but it does demonstrate that the issues that drive and prevent crime are too complex to fit into a one line statistic or sound-byte.

The point here is that preventing crime takes long-term research into the causes, effective police work and rehabilitation. All of which can happen without the use of the death penalty.

2. 'They did the crime, they should do the time'

Various iterations of this comment came thick and fast when Amnesty began calling for the clemency of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, currently on death row in Bali for drug offences. Ironically, with the death penalty, we are not talking about time, we are talking about the opposite.

Both men acknowledge their crimes and recognise that they must face punishment. But a death sentence deprives people of the opportunity to reform. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are great examples of reform, one running art classes and the other studying to be a pastor. Their reform has come so far that a former governor of Kerobokan prison has argued they shouldn't be executed.

Many others who languish on death row across the world have acknowledged their crime and reformed. There is no benefit to the state in killing these people, a senseless deprivation of life.

The immediate counter argument is that the threat of death forces people to reform. Again, the evidence for this simply isn't conclusive.

Criminal justice systems the world over have had great success of reform without the threat of death, and often due to programs that focus on offender rehabilitation.

3. The criminal justice system is fair

Australia's criminal justice system is largely fair, but that certainly can't be said of many of the countries using the death penalty. We know that the death penalty is applied overwhelmingly to the working class, ethnic minorities and other marginalised groups. This happens not because people in these categories are more prone to crime, but because they have less access to legal resources.

Ask any criminal lawyer whether or not the amount of legal resources available on a particular case makes a difference and they will give you a deadpan 'yes'. Legal support might not get the verdict is changed, but mitigating circumstances can be presented, alternate arguments explored and evidence double-checked. All of this makes a difference to whether a death sentence is handed down.

"We can't give back a life once it is taken, and for one I would prefer a cautious approach to even the slightest possibility of taking an innocent person's life"

Many justice systems are stacked against the person charged with the crime. Siti Zainab is an Indonesian national on death row in Saudi Arabia. Siti was a domestic worker who, after horrific treatment at the hands of her employer, allegedly killed a member of the household. Domestic workers are often unable to escape their employers treatment in the Gulf and Siti reportedly suffers from a mental illness.

Regardless of the country, a fair criminal justice system does not mean an infallible one - errors can and do occur. Troy Davis was executed in Georgia, USA after seven of nine key witnesses changed their testimony, some going so far as to argue for Troy's innocence.

We can't give back a life once it is taken, and for one I would prefer a cautious approach to even the slightest possibility of taking an innocent person's life.

4. It is cheaper and more humane to execute people.

Even I was surprised by the facts on this one. A study done in California discovered that it was actually more expensive to execute a person than to keep them in jail for life. Yes, that's right - the amount of time and money spent on taking a person's life is greater than keeping them in prison.

For those of us who think there is a humane way to execute, let's reflect on how some executions actually occur.

Often prisoners are woken with no knowledge they are to be killed, taken to a remote location, tied to a post and shot in the chest. If they don't die, a captain takes a pistol and shoots them in the head. For hangings, people are sometimes strapped to a steel board to stop them moving as they are wheeled up to a noose.

Governments often keep this information on executions secret, even to the point of loading some of the guns with blanks so no one definitively knows who in the firing squad fired the death blow.

Whichever way you look at it, killing another human isn't humane, not even close. And when you get to the details it is simply vengeful and cruel.

5. But what about [insert horrible despot here]: surely they should be executed?

There are a lot of people who have done horrific, unspeakable things, but modern societies should not join their ranks by also carrying out a murder. People are judged by their actions, and killing another human being is about as profound as actions come.

We can't take back death, we know that systems make mistakes and we are lucky enough to live in a country where the majority of people oppose this cruel punishment.

"We can't take back death, we know that systems make mistakes and we are lucky enough to live in a country where the majority of people oppose this cruel punishment"

This knowledge give us an opportunity, a chance to ask our neighbours in the region to end this practice. Today, thousands of Australians will start a movement and light candles at vigils all across the country to end the backslide towards execution in Asia.

It might sound simple but we shouldn't underestimate the capacity of a group of Australians to change the world.
An edited version of this story first appeared on news.com.au Find out more about the Amnesty International Australia's campaigns against the death penalty and how you can help save lives today. Join our Human Rights Defenders program to help us abolish the death penalty.
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5 reasons some people think the world needs the death penalty

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Here are five reasons why some people think the world needs the death penalty, and five ways in which they're wrong.

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Many people assume that the state saves money by employing the death penalty since an executed person no longer requires confinement, health care, and related expenses.  some of the reasons for the high cost of the death penalty are the longer trials and appeals required when a person’s life is on the line, the need for more lawyers and experts on both sides of the case, and the relative rarity of executions. How much the death penalty actually costs and how that compares to a system in which a life sentence is the maximum punishment can only be determined by sophisticated studies

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0:00 / 1:13•Watch full video

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Death penalty more expensive than life in prison

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0:00 / 2:02•Watch full video

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Getting Answers: How Much Do Death Row Inmates Cost The State?

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History Of The Death Penalty

Early Death Penalty Laws

The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. The death penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C.'s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all crimes; and in the Fifth Century B.C.'s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement.

In the Tenth Century A.D., hanging became the usual method of execution in Britain. In the following century, William the Conqueror would not allow persons to be hanged or otherwise executed for any crime, except in times of war. This trend would not last, for in the Sixteenth Century, under the reign of Henry VIII, as many as 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed. Some common methods of execution at that time were boiling, burning at the stake, hanging, beheading, and drawing and quartering. Executions were carried out for such capital offenses as marrying a Jew, not confessing to a crime, and treason.

The number of capital crimes in Britain continued to rise throughout the next two centuries. By the 1700s, 222 crimes were punishable by death in Britain, including stealing, cutting down a tree, and robbing a rabbit warren. Because of the severity of the death penalty, many juries would not convict defendants if the offense was not serious. This lead to reforms of Britain's death penalty. From 1823 to 1837, the death penalty was eliminated for over 100 of the 222 crimes punishable by death. (Randa, 1997)

The Death Penalty in America

Britain influenced America's use of the death penalty more than any other country. When European settlers came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment. The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. In 1612, Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians.

Laws regarding the death penalty varied from colony to colony. The Massachusetts Bay Colony held its first execution in 1630, even though the Capital Laws of New England did not go into effect until years later. The New York Colony instituted the Duke's Laws of 1665. Under these laws, offenses such as striking one's mother or father, or denying the "true God," were punishable by death. (Randa, 1997)

Sources

Amnesty International, ​" List of Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries," Report ACT 50/​01/​99, April 1999

D. Baker: ​"A Descriptive Profile and Socio-Historical Analysis of Female Executions in the United States: 1632 - 1997"; 10(3) Women and Criminal Justice 57 (1999)

R. Bohm, ​"Deathquest: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States," Anderson Publishing, 1999.

"The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies," H. Bedau, editor, Oxford University Press, 1997.

K. O'Shea, ​"Women and the Death Penalty in the United States, 1900 - 1998," Praeger 1999.

W. Schabas ​"The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law," Cambridge University Press, second edition, 1997.

"Society's Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty," L. Randa, editor, University Press of America, 1997.

V. Streib, ​" Death Penalty For Female Offenders January 1973 to October 2010, " Ohio Northern University, 2003.

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Early Death Penalty Laws The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. The death penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C.'s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all...