Capital Punishment Essay Introduction Example For Students

Capital Punishment Essay Introduction Good Afternoon, I am honored to be here, and I thank you for having me. Today I would like to speak to you about a very controversial issue-capital punishment. What do those two words mean to you? To mostpeople they mean a murder victims family receiving justice for theirdeceased. Let me see a show of hands. How many people in the audiencebelieve in the death penalty? I conducted a weeklong survey of twohundred people of all ages. The purpose was to see how many peoplebelieved in the death penalty and how many opposed it. My results areshown on this overhead. As you can clearly see, 98% believe in the death penalty. 57% believethat the death penalty is a deterrent for murder. A high of 97% of thepeople favor capital punishment, where 1% think that our justice systemshould not be more lenient on death row inmates. Only 89% think thatonce convicted of murder, an inmate should be sentenced to deathimmediately. I would like to take this time to tell you a story. On August 15,1997, the Reverend John Miller preached a sermon at the Martha VineyardsTabernacle in New Hampshire. He told his congregation, which includedthe vacationing President Clinton and his wife, that capital punishmentis wrong. I invite you to look at a picture of Timothy McVeigh and toforgive him, said Miller. If we profess to be Christians, then we arecalled to love and forgive. Once the sermon ended, Rev. Miller,Clinton, and their wives got together for brunch at the Sweet Life Cafi. What the Rev. did not know was that 24-year-old Jeremy T Charron; anEpsom New Hampshire police officer was gunned down in cold blood justhours before Millers sermon on forgiving murderers. That Sunday markedCharrons 44th day as a full time police officer, the job he dreamed ofsince he was 6 years old. Jeremy Charron leaves behind his parents, two sets of grandparents, twosisters, two brothers, a wide circle of friends, and a girlfriend whoseengagement ring he had begun to shop for. Maybe the Reverend Millerwould advise those grieving for Charron to look at pictures of GordonPerry, the robber accused of pumping the bullets into Charrons heart,and 18 year old Kevin Paul, the accomplice, and forgive. The state of New Hampshire has opted not to forgive, but to prosecute. Perry has been charged with capital murder. If he is convicted, thestate will seek the death penalty for the first time since 1939. Jeanne Shepard, the democratic governor, says a capital murderprosecution will put criminals On notice that if they kill a policeofficer in New Hampshire, they will face the death penalty. What ifthey kill someone other than a cop? Should criminals not be put onnotice that they will face the death penalty if they kill a cashier incold blood? A farmer, or a schoolteacher? They should- but the lawsays otherwise. In New Hampshire as in all states with the deathpenalty, murder can be punished with execution only in specificcircumstances. The murder of an officer in the line of duty is one ofthem. Among others are murder combined with rape, murder for higher,and murder in the course of kidnapping. First degree murder is notpunishable by death. One who willfully murders a cashier is no lessevil then the murderer of a police officer. Both have committed theworst crime. Both should be subjected to the worst possiblepunishment. That is justice. Standing in the way of that justice, however, are the likes of Rev. Miller, who brim with such pity for criminals that they have none leftover for the victims. Forgive Timothy McVeigh, he says, as if we havethat right. Absolve the man who slaughtered 168 innocent men, women,and children in Oklahoma City. Pardon the killer of Officer Charron. Nothing could be more sinful and indecent. How sad that Miller,enjoying his brunch with the president at the Sweet Life Cafi, shouldlack compassion for the sweet life of others. Executions at U.S. prisons reached a 40- year high last year. There aregoing to be more executions in the future as these cases are speeded up,as a result of federal and state laws shortening the appeal process. Iwould now like to direct your attention to the overhead. Examination of the slave experience EssayA heinous crime occurs and most people ask the inevitable question: Whoare these people capable of such inhuman acts? According to Gilligan,they generally are ordinary people who often describe themselves asrobots, zombies, nonentities, and even vampires. In a 1977 courtroom,convicted serial killer Ted Bundy said many things about himself. Amongthose descriptions were; Sometimes I feel like a vampire, and Im themost cold blooded son of a bitch youll ever meet. Murderersfrequently mutilate themselves in prison, cutting their arms, swallowingrazor blades, blinding or castrating themselves- because feelingsomething, even pain, is better than feeling nothing. People who windup committing murder are often the survivors of attempted murderthemselves, or of a child abuse that is so severe, that if they were notstrong, they would not have survived. David Berkowitz was the Son ofSam serial killer. The press at one time asked him why he killed somany people. He replied, I always had a certain fetish for murder anddeath. Berkowitz was jolted to kill when he found out a familysecret. He was an accident, a mistake, never meant to be born. He hadalways been told that his birth mother had been killed during labor. What he found out was it was just a lie to cover up the fact that hisreal mother did not even care about him. Once he discovered the truth,he vowed to find the woman that cast him aside. When asked by a friendwhat he would do when he found her, he said, Im not going to rob her. Im not going to touch her or rape her. All I want to do is kill her. Gilligans hypothesis is that the common underlying cause of violenceis shame. Violent behavior only results when three other conditionsoccur: 1) The individual does not see himself as having any nonviolentmeans to gain respect or find justice. 2) The shame and humiliation areso overwhelming they threaten to destroy the persons sense of self. 3)The violent impulses stimulated in all of us by feelings of humiliationare not inhibited by guilt, remorse, empathy, or love. The characterHannible Lechter, as shown in this clip from the movie Silence of theLambs explains it best. Rather than punishment, Gilligan said, one proven approach to reducingviolence is education, especially a college degree. Several years ago,Gilligan conducted a study in the Massachusetts Prison system in whichmore than two hundred inmates, including those that were convictedmurderers, earned degrees and were released from prison. So far, notone repeat offender has been found. Gilligan said We know that the single most effective factor whichreduces the rate of recidivism in the prison population is education,and yet education in the prisons is the first item to be cut when anadministration gets tough on crime. If our goal is to reduce crimeand violence, we would benefit all law abiding members of society if wemade college education available in the prisons. Gilligan said he isamazed by how inarticulate and incoherent many violent prisoners are. They have never learned to express themselves. They have never hadanyone to listen to them and take their thoughts seriously. If we canget them to talk about their life experiences, we immediately give theman alternative. If we can provide these men with an alternative toviolent behavior, they will use it. The best way to get people to actlike human beings is to treat them like human beings. Gilligan acknowledges that some violent criminals are so severelydamaged and dangerous they simply can never live out in society again. But the emphasis, he said, must be on restraining and quarantining,rather than punishment. Over time, even the most deeply damaged peoplecan recover a great deal of the humanity that they have lost; even thedeadest could be restored to some semblance of humanity if given ahumane enough environment, said Gilligan. I now leave the decision up to you. I have given you both the pros andcons on the issue of capital punishment. If you choose to remember onlyone point of my speech tonight let it be this quote of human beings byHenry Ford. None are good but all are scared. Even the mosthorrendous criminal is a human being with a soul, and that soul isscared.