Death Penalty

Four years ago, if you asked me how I felt about the death penalty, I probably would have answered very vaguely. I had my reasons for being both for and against it, the stories of those convicted of the crime only years later found out to not have done it, and the brutal murders matched with the honest confessions. I was neither here or there about it, but I did feel that those that committed a crime needed to be punished for it, and do not feel that my tax dollars should be spent on keeping you in an air conditioned, safe, and convenient location that provided three meals a day, cable television, and an education. Still skeptical though of the courtroom outcomes and trials, I did not feel that the death penalty would always be the solution to the problems. Something in my life happened to change all of my feelings, and was able to change my ambiguous notions into feelings of anger and resentment for crimes done, and was turned into a believer of the death penalty. With my personal feelings, I do realize that I am clouding my judgment to make a rational decision about the death penalty, and if I were a juror member and a heinous crime was committed, I am not saying that I would go in waving the flag for execution, I just think that my stance my have changed over the four years.

Living in Florida, the death penalty is something that we deal with every year that is up until the end of last year when there was a complication in a lethal injection of Angel Nieves Diaz, which put the executions on hold since. Diaz death took 34 minutes to take place, instead of the normal 10-15 minutes. This was then considered cruel and unusual punishment and the Governor Jeb Bush has thus declared Moratorium on Executions, holding all those scheduled. Florida was the fifth state in the nation for executions, Texas of course being the top in the country. The United States has a whole had 56 executions in 2006, 6th country in the world with the most being China with a number that is over 1,000 people. An interesting source would be the DVD extended bonus material on the picture, The Life of David Gale, by Universal Pictures. It actually goes behind the scenes and tells a lot about the life of death row in the state of Texas, showing the feelings and comments of the town that the executions are all held in, and personal comments from friends and family members of both the victims and the inmates.

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