Clemency, compassion?
How exactly can I explain the Capital Punishment System here in Illinois? Well to be honest, I would have to go with, total chaos. For you who don’t know what Capital Punishment is, it is the system we use to place criminals who commit very serious crimes on Death Row. Out of the 50 states in our wonderful country, 38 of them have a Capital Punishment System, Illinois being one of them. Recently, while Governor George Ryan was in office, it was decided to halt all executions, making Illinois the first of the 38 states to do so.
Capital Punishment was brought back to Illinois in 1977. From ’77 to ’87 there were a total of 128 prisoners enrolled on death row. In 1990 alone there were 125 murderers waiting to face the ultimate punishment. Out of those people, a total of 12 people have been executed through lethal injection, but 13 prisoners were released from death row as innocent. 7 of the 12 executed were after 1976, 5 were in 1995 alone. Is it just me, or is this a bit confusing? The Government seemed to get a little death hungry during these years. It’s obvious that there are bound to be many other innocent people, sitting in jail cells suffering for a murder that they did not commit.
Governor Ryan stepped in office determined to find out what is wrong with this system in Illinois. He came in actually as a firm believer of the death penalty, but seeing that 13 people were found innocent, Governor Ryan became frustrated and decided to take action. After researching how the system works, and becoming aware of the flaws, the former Governor pardoned 4 more prisoners (Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard and Leroy Orange) who confessed under police torture and convicted because of those confessions. “I believe these men are innocent or I wouldn’t have pardoned them, the system has failed for all four men and it has failed for all the people of this state.” Governor Ryan said at Depaul University. He also believes that there are at least 33 wrongly convicted, and since Capital Punishment was reinstated 93 have been released from custody because they were found innocent.
This system in Illinois is obviously full of error and no one can ever seem to be 100% sure of determining who’s guilty and who’s innocent, and if they should die or not.
Throughout the history of man there has always existed a sort of rule pertaining to retribution for just and unjust acts. For the just came rewards, and for the unjust came punishments. This has been a law as old as time. One philosophy about the treatment of the unjust is most controversial in modern time and throughout our history; which is is the ethical decision of a death penalty. This controversial issue of punishment by death has been going on for centuries. It dates back to as early as 399 B.C.E., to when Socrates was forced to drink hemlock for his “corruption of the youth” and “impiety”.
After viewing the panel discussion about how our local school districts have implemented English Language Learning in their school, I am very intrigued. From what I gathered the field of ELL is a growing industry in education, especially in Colorado Springs. We have ELL’s students coming from all over the world. Here in Colorado Springs alone, school districts have to accommodate for over fifty different languages spoken by ELL’s. I can only imagine the challenge that comes with such a diverse group of non- English speakers in our community schools.
The American public has consistently favored the use of the death penalty. Although anti-capital-punishment groups in the 19th century won some victories in slowing down the drive for death-penalty laws, most of their successes were short-lived. By the early 20th century, executions were common and widespread, reaching record numbers by the 1930s and 1940s, when more than 100 people were executed each year. But as public and official confidence in the effectiveness and fairness of capital punishment began to wane in the 1960s, the number of yearly executions dropped to the single digits. By the early 1970s, there was an unofficial end to executions in the country.
One of the first things we need to look at is, what is the due process model? It is a model in which there is the assumption that every effort needs to be done to ensure that an innocent person is not convicted of a crime. It adheres to the belief of strict evidence, which means to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the person actually committed the crime, and the charge meets all of the requirements of the crime. The state in this model is burdened with showing evidence that the person has committed the crime, and the defense has the opportunity to show the evidence in inconclusive. Due to the strict guidelines of admissibility of evidence, and the right’s awarded to presumed innocent people, there end up being many guilty people that get off on a technicality, that should be incarcerated.
For example, Ted Bundy and terrorists like Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh who have committed serious crimes. Furthermore, during the first decade of the 21st century there were 26 percent more executions in the U.S. than in the 20th century. For instance, during the same time period, the U.S. murder rate decreased by 24 percent (Marquis, 22). However, how would you know if someone was innocent or not? What if they had been framed by the actual killer? That’s why it would take a long and complex process to find out whether that person had not committed such crime. Therefore, innocent people could be put to death for doing no such crimes.
In 1969 there were no executions and 14,590 murders. Seven more years without executions and there were 20,510 murders. As you can see the deterrent effect is there and works very well. As you can see the death penalty is for the common good and it saves a life of the. People out there say that the death penalty is wrong, but
Capital punishment results in the victims family gaining a greater sense of security, making sure the criminal is able to be punished to the highest degree for his crime, and honoring retribution. The issue of capital punishment has created a division
There are major problems with our criminal justice system. In the last one hundred years, there have been more than 75 documented cases of wrongful conviction of criminal homicide. According to a 1987 Stanford University survey, at least 23 Americans have been wrongly executed in the 20th century. For this very reason, the State of Illinois imposed a moratorium on the state?s death penalty in 2000 when it was discovered that 13 inmates on its Death Row were wrongly convicted. Anthony Porter, one of the 13, spent 15 years on Death Row and was within two days of being executed, before a group of Northwestern journalism students uncovered evidence that was used to prove his innocence.
In conclusion the disaster of Chernobyl was a tragedy that cost thousands of lives. An has effected an entire region of that world. An it will be a very long time before everything will be back to normal there. However it has given us a chance to explore what went wrong, andto make sure it doesn't happen again. An not only that, but as a gamer, I love the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, and doing this paper has made the games so much better.
The Death Penalty Should Be Enacted In Illinois Due to the recent releases of newly exonerated Death Row inmates, individuals and organizations are calling for a moratorium- a cooling off period for state executions. The cases of just a few inmates makes it apparent that this would be a necessary step to save innocent lives. After 17 years in prison, Illinois Death Row inmate Anthony Porter was released from jail after a judge threw out his murder conviction following the introduction of new evidence. This reversal of fortune came just two days before Porter was to be executed. As reported in USA Today, Porter's release was the result of investigative research as conducted by a Northwestern University professor and students. The evidence gathered suggested that Porter had been wrongly convicted. Were these new revelations and the subsequent release of Porter a lucky break or a freak occurrence? Not likely, reports DeWayne Wickham, also of USA Today. He points out that since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, of those sentenced to death, 490 people have been executed while 76 have been freed from Death Row. This calculates into one innocent person being released from Death Row for every six individuals that were executed. This figure correlates with the 1996 U.S. Department of Justice report that indicates that over a 7-year period, beginning in 1989, when DNA evidence in various cases was tested, 26% of primary suspects were exonerated. This has led some to conclude that a similar percentage of inmates presently serving time behind bars may have been wrongly convicted prior to the advent o...
Many prisoners in the past have been known to be killed before they were proven innocent. Many documented cases where DNA testing showed that innocent people were put to death by the government. This sometimes happens because there are defendants who are given minimal legal attention by often minor qualified individuals. The government has made many mistakes which are being wrong about convicting someone for something they didn’t do, and killing this person for the wrong reason. Putting the wrong person to death is the biggest mistake that can be made and the government cannot afford to make this mistake.
In this paper I will argue for the moral permissibility of the death penalty and I am fairly confident that when the case for capital punishment is made properly, its appeal to logic and morality is compelling. The practice of the death penalty is no longer as wide-spread as it used to be throughout the world; in fact, though the death penalty was nearly universal in past societies, only 71 countries world-wide still officially permit the death penalty (www.infoplease.com); the U.S. being among them. Since colonial times, executions have taken place in America, making them a part of its history and tradition. Given the pervasiveness of the death penalty in the past, why do so few countries use the death penalty, and why are there American states that no longer sanction its use? Is there a moral wrong involved in the taking of a criminal’s life? Of course the usual arguments will be brought up, but beyond the primary discourse most people do not go deeper than their “gut feeling” or personal convictions. When you hear about how a family was ruthlessly slaughtered by a psychopathic serial killer most minds instantly feel that this man should be punished, but to what extent? Would it be just to put this person to death?
“Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 138 innocent men and women have been released from the death row, including some who came within minutes of execution. In Missouri, Texas and Virginia investigations have been opened to determine if those states executed innocent men. To execute an innocent person is morally reprehensible; this risk we cannot
Nuclear power has always been a controversial issue because of its inherent danger and the amount of waste that the plants produce. Once considered a relatively safe form for generating energy, nuclear power has caused more problems than it has solved. While it has reduced the amount of traditional natural resources (fossil fuels), used to generate power like coal, wood, and oil, nuclear generating plants have become anachronisms. Maintaining them and keeping them safe has become a problem of immense proportion. As the plants age and other technology becomes available, what to do with these “eyesores” is a consuming issue for many government agencies and environmental groups. No one knows what to do about the problem and in many areas of the world, another nuclear meltdown is an accident waiting to happen. Despite a vast array of safety measures, a break in reactor pipe or a leak in a containment vessel, could spell another environmental disaster for the world.
In March 2011, Fukushima, Japan, the nation was hit by a 8.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami. Many lives were lost that day and buildings collapsed everywhere. It was a painful sight to see, and to the Japanese people, it was a sad and worrisome time. The Japanese people was not afraid of the earthquake and tsunami since they learn from young to cope those disasters since it was a normal event for a land which situated on the ‘Ring of Fire’, a large active volcanic and tectonic zone ringing North and South America, Asia and island arcs in Southeast Asia (“Ring of Fire”). It was the news from the government that worried them. The news of the Fukushima Daiichi Plant was hit by the earthquake and the tsunami has caused the waste to spread all over the sea. For some Japanese people, it was history all over again. After that incident, the people of the Japan has spoken out to the government to shut down every nuclear reactor in the country and the government accepted the people’s voices with all 48 reactors going off line (Gatehouse). However, that incident has another effect that may take its toll towards the science of nuclear. Should we still use nuclear power plant to generate energy for our world? There are many viewpoints on this topic, however, with the evidence that I have gathered and the reaction of other countries, Nuclear power plant brings more harm than benefits to the human population.