As he went to intervene to help his brother, two shots were fired: one killing Officer Daniel Faulkner and the other wounding Mumia himself. ... Mumia was refused the right to defend himself in court, ostensibly because of his dreadlocks, which were said to make the jury nervous. ... And though a witness stated having seen another man fleeing the scene, most witness testimonies were altered after police harassment and special favors by police. ... How do we reconcile all of the above stated facts with the reality of Mumia's being on death row? ... We dare not label ourselves as free whi...

• Word Count: 906
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Many people may not know it, but they have heard part of Hammurabi's Law Code before. ... It must first be noted that the Laws of Ur-Nammu were written some time around 2100 B.C., around three hundred years before Hammurabi's Code. ... The highest class was the free men, while the lowest were slaves. ... Violations of a free man were much more severely punished than that of a slave. ... We can really see how women were treated though Mesopotamia. ...

• Word Count: 1192
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

It explains how before PCR, the most sophisticated way to identify a suspect was by blood typing. ... "It's too much power (for a governor) to say that a person should not go free (pg 72)." ... Secret tests were done on the suspect for these crimes, Ronald Lott. ... In the final chapter, it discusses some facts that we need to learn. ... We were taught that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. ...

• Word Count: 1796
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Crimes involving theft, adultery, kidnapping, harboring fugitives or slaves, and incest were what we consider high crimes and punishable by death under The Code. ... If an Amelu puts out the eye of a Maskinu (free-man) or Ardu (slave) then he pays a fee. ... The one specific area where women were judged and men were not was Adultery. (129, 131, 132) A woman found guilty of Adultery was drowned with her lover. ... Whereas the penalties imposed by Hammurabi were far more barbaric than today we can see how the penalties have evolved over the decades. ... Each case and punishment is differe...

• Word Count: 643
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Lately science has been a big role in helping solve crimes, crimes that years ago could not be solved with the resources that were available. ... After struggling for years to prove his innocence he was finally released and cleared of the crime in 1993, he became the first American freed from prison because of DNA evidence. ... This new way of solving crime is great because it is a more accurate way to find murder suspects, rape suspects and other criminals that years ago we wouldn't even think that we could catch. ... The way that Kirk Bloodsworth had to live in prison and what he had...

• Word Count: 583
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Jones was convicted in 1989 before DNA tests were available, but when they were made available in 2000, the request for a DNA test was ignore, and Jones was executed. ... Since the death penalty was reinstated, 87 people put on death row were later freed because they were proven to be innocent. ... However, this was before Jesus came from Heaven to earth to die on the cross for our sins. ... " God says that all sin will get you to hell, so as sinners, who are we to condemn another person to death? ... Capital punishment is one of the most unfair and awful systems we have in America. ...

• Word Count: 1445
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

During a sociology class we got into a heavy debate on the topic capital punishment. ... The thought of killing this person for some reason must be running through their mind continuously before they actually kill them. ... None of the things running through his mind, before the murder, must have meant anything to this sick person. ... In the courtroom, the jury is just normal people that think just like us, and make mistakes just as we do. ... However, if John were sentenced to life in prison, he would be set free, and able to live normally once again. ...

• Word Count: 982
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

When they drove out of the garage and began closing the garage door, he snuck in just before it closed. ... There were no windows nor was there any way to open either of the garage doors, thus he was locked inside the garage the whole weekend. ... It has been used for hundreds of centuries from before Christ to now. ... The guilty person is given everything for free at the expense of the taxpayers. ... This would free up space in jails, cut back on appeals as well as costs, and deter would-be murderers. ...

• Word Count: 1517
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

"We have now freed more people than we have put to death under our system - 13 people have been exonerated and 12 have been put to death," Ryan says. ... We need to investigate what's been going on." ... Suppose we apply the same standards to the government that we have for civilians. ... Due to the persistence of professors and students at Northwestern University, eleven men including Cruz have been set free from death row since 1976. ... One can't imagine how sickening it must feel to be locked up in a cell for years just knowing that once freed from...

• Word Count: 2333
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

This automatically shows that all Hammurabi's written laws were unequal and unfair. ... Next is "If anyone steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a god or to the court, the thief shall pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged to a freed man of the king he shall pay tenfold; if the thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put to death. ... My two last examples, that can be explained in so many words shows how these laws were so unjustified which bothered me because they were soo unbelievable, and ridiculous. ... If we were still under ...

• Word Count: 719
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

We need protection. ... Take the criminal away from the prosperity of living in a free and healthy environment, to make him or her live for a lifetime in a far less pleasant set of circumstances. Take the criminal away from the benefits of living in a free society. ... If somebody knew that they risked the death penalty for the crime that they were to commit, wouldn't they be more likely to kill a witness? ... Brian was not a supporter of capital punishment before this ordeal and yet after all that he has gone through, he still opposes it. ...

• Word Count: 1379
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

They were convicted and now they are sitting on death row. ... Criminals should think of the consequences before they kill someone. ... Before, I thought it was cruel to take the life of one person in turn for the taking of another life. ... I believe that the death penalty is needed because we do not live in a civilized society. We live in a day and age where killing happens everyday, and many people get away with it. ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

He murdered at least nine more women before being caught again and finally justice was served when he was executed in 1998. ... " Where were all the victims' rights advocates when these murderers were let out? ... How do you tell a family member that their loved one is dead because the court system set a murderer free? ... There are plenty of cases where an innocent person was sentenced to life in prison and pulled many years before being exonerated, but we are not trying to abolish life in prison. ... The statement, "If we impose the death sentence and thereby deter some future...

• Word Count: 1848
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"We universally and consistently oppose the death penalty, in all circumstances. ... However these anomalies were swept away with the passing of the Crimes (Death Penalty Abolition) Amendment Act, 1985. ... On this occasion 95 per cent of the respondents were in favor of the reintroduction of capital punishment. ... In Queensland, for example, in the decade prior to the abolition of capital punishment (1912-21), there were 131 murders, whereas in the decade following abolition (1923-32) there were 129 murders. ... In Canada, the homicide rate fell from a peak of 3.09 per 100,000 population in ...

• Word Count: 2841
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In his book, The Law, Federic Bastiat writes, "humans have inalienable rights that existed outside of and before government. ... If the death penalty were in-acted in a swifter manner, it would most likely deter even better. ... John McAdams, a professor of Political Science at Marquette University sums it up best: "If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and in so doing would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. ... The cold hard truth is ...

• Word Count: 699
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In March of this year a Chinese television program broadcasted live images of the final moments of four drug traffickers before they were publicly executed by lethal injection (Los Angeles Times). ... As Angela Williams clearly states "we have to ask ourselves if we, as fellow human beings, have the right to determine who lives and who dies" (Williams). ... Today we are ruled by an iron fist of convenience and money. ... He spent the next 15 years on death row awaiting his execution. 15 years later the DNA evidence finally exonerated Thibodeaux and allowed him to go free to rebuild his life (B...

• Word Count: 1207
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It dates back all the way to before the Bible with the crucifixion of Jesus. ... All of this sounds horrible and inhumane, but people must think about what the criminal did before he/she was sentenced to death. ... However, if we kill them then we will stoop to their level. ... How would you feel if you were to be wrongly accused for a murder and put on death row? ... They will be free to kill again and again until they are satisfied. ...

• Word Count: 1429
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

If despite this, the execution was to go ahead, the criminal was given an opiate before dying, so that no pain would be felt. ... In Manitoba, David Milgaard spent twenty-three years of his life behind bars before his release. ... These three men would have been dead and buried years ago if capital punishment were still the law in this country. ... Not being able to ever hope to be free to do as they please. ... We should not! ...

• Word Count: 1472
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Before all of that, Eichmann's profession was that of being a Nazi bureaucrat. ... They also thought that all of the contradictions he was making were because he couldn't keep all of his lies straight and started to get them confused. ... A lot of people, along with myself, don't like this idea because it is almost as if it gives Eichmann a "free pass " for everything he did because he might have an issue. ... One of the main reasons that she agrees with the verdict is because Eichmann could have left his job at any time if he felt that his morals were starting to be violated. ....

• Word Count: 1350
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

These 23 people were wrongly tried, convicted, and executed. ... In order to uphold this vision of justice for all, we should abolish the death penalty in this country, and look to alternative forms of punishment, before one more innocent life is taken in the name of justice. 4. ... If we can successfully abolish the death penalty in the United States, we can be free to live in a country where the taking of another life is not considered justice, and we need not live in fear that we will be wrongfully denied our right to life by our own people. ... What kind of a society have we become whe...

• Word Count: 914
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In 2002 seventy-one inmates were executed, five more than the year before. ... Fifty-three were white and eighteen were black. Sixty-nine were men and two were women. ... At the end of 2002 there were 3,557 prisoners under the sentence of death in our country, twenty fewer than the year before. ... There are more people on death row now then there has ever been before. ...

• Word Count: 2619
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The Supreme Court said that it would decide weather the Constitution allows the executions of killers who commit their crimes before they are eighteen years of age. ... Then how do we have the right to tell a child we are going to give him or her the capital punishment for not being raised properly. ... Bob Hayes' two biological children were treated far better than Chris. ... Sentence him to the death penalty sound better to the legal system but, kill him is exactly what we are telling the boy that we are going to do. ... In large part because of our desire to remain ...

• Word Count: 1138
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

If nitrogen asphyxiation were employed as a form of execution, it could become the primary method. ... We put animals to death more humanely" (Howe). ... A similar example of the physiology of asphyxiation can be found in a hazardous risk to free divers who hyperventilate before diving called shallow water blackout. ... If his blood oxygen level falls too low before he reaches the surface, the diver blacks out and drowns. ... For example if there were some sort of leak, the observers or executioners would not be harmed because nitrogen is a major component of the air that we breathe. ...

• Word Count: 1643
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Developed countries such as Australia and America are known for being "a free country". ... As the eighth juror points out; "It's happened before that someone's been convicted of murder and executed, and years later someone else has confessed to the crime." ... We may be wrong. ... Prejudices were at a peak. Particularly against those who were culturally different and those who resided in the "lower classes"...

• Word Count: 1817
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The old adage tells us that a person may steal from a thief, that a person can wrong those that has wrong him or her, but do we, as a society, have the right to decide on whether a person lives or dies? Do we have the right to kill those who have killed and if we do kill the murderers, does that, technically, make us murderers ourselves and doesn't that make us hypocrites? We hold a hypocrisy that the society must not possess any longer. ... Those who were often sentenced to death were considered to be "outsiders," or foreigners, minorities and people who were not from the immediate ...

• Word Count: 6785
• Approx Pages: 27
• Grade Level: High School