Journal Entry 1

Frankie Cudney

English 1000

Journal Entry 1

            The first article I studied was titled Limiting the Death Penalty. It talked about America’s views on the death penalty and how they have changed over the years. The article discussed how the death penalty used to be a very common way of dealing with criminals who committed murder. Around the 70s and 80s however, polls taken showed the decline in people who favored the death penalty over other methods of sentencing. Although there is an increase in people who support this sentence, America is still one of the top countries in the world that uses the death penalty as a way of punishment for murderous crimes. Just in 2009 there were 109 people sentenced to death row and killed. Another big thing that follows the death penalty is the fact that not everyone who is sentenced is guilty. This article also talked about how in 2000, 30 people were exonerated from death row because they were found to be innocent. Since this is such a big issue, starting in 1998 a Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty nation wide conference began to be held annually in Chicago to discuss cases and rule out any who were wrongfully convicted. Those who participate in this event have found that over the years with science and technology advancing, people originally convicted of crimes are later found innocent because of new methods of case solving that are emerging.

            Since my research topic is on the media and how the public influences court cases regarding the death penalty, this article really helped me with my topic. It answered questions I had on how people feel towards the death penalty and whether or not it is a widely supported idea. This article has changed my thinking process dramatically. Although I viewed the death penalty as an extreme form of criminal punishment I never thought into it the severity of the consequences that follow. The amount of cases that are sentenced to death row and later found innocent is much too high of a number for the death penalty to be something that is used as often as it is. Although averaging 100 cases a year doesn’t seem like a lot, considering around 30% of the people convicted are found not guilty, that is way too high of a percentage of people who would have been killed for no good reason. I have always gone back and forth on my views on this subject. While I do not feel it is right to kill someone for committing murder, there are some cases that are so extreme you question whether or not life in prison is enough punishment. I have a lot more questions to find answers for regarding this topic and after reading this article; I have an idea with the direction I plan on taking this paper.

This article helped me to start off my research on this topic and opened doors to new ideas to research regarding this subject. I am curious to learn about how the public and media have influence over whether the death penalty is used and if the more public the case is made, the more heavily it is studied to make sure they sentenced the right person. The more popular cases we hear about in the news seem to rule out death row early on and I am curious to look into why this is. My opinion hasn’t changed from reading this article but it has heightened my awareness on the subject. For further research I plan on looking into previous cases where the death penalty was used and how public these cases were made by the media. My reasoning for doing this will be to try and determine whether or not the public’s opinion can help to change the outcome of murder trials based on how much media attention it gets.