Capital Punishment; Good or Bad?

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Craig Shaw

Ms. Ting Yi

English 101-07-01

October 18, 2002

Capital Punishment; Good or Bad?

Capital punishment is an extremely controversial topic in today’s society because of religious and moral values. The website I evaluated has the same opinion I do about that topic, which is capital punishment has more positives than negatives. The web site shows the positives in it and demonstrates how it is good. Many people share the same view, but however there are people that disagree and despise capital punishment. Those people tend to act on the issue more than the people who support do. That is why there are a greater number of articles displaying all the negative aspects of the death penalty. So throughout the years, especially within the last ten years, this topic has been highly disputed over and over again.

In the web site there are several articles explaining the positives in the death penalty and why it should be used more often. There are up to date news articles, interviews, quotes, more web links, and the legal laws of each state all concerning capital punishment. The news articles are from around the country, and each one dealing with the death penalty. Some are about how people just received a sentence of life in prison after committing a horrific murder, rather then receiving the death penalty for their crimes. Other articles are about the different rulings in the separate states involving the death sentence. There are also other news articles concerning the death penalty from around the world as well in the web site. The web site offers interviews and quotes from experts in the field, who spend their careers arguing over capital punishment. The organization who created the site is hoping people see that, since these highly respected people in society believe in it that they should to. The interviews and quotes show a deep incite on the topic and makes one think about capital punishment from a different perspective. The web site also offers links to other sites on the web concerning the death penalty. They want people to research the topic thoroughly and develop their own opinion. By exploring prodeathpenalty.com one can view the government laws on capital punishment for each state. The site is very informative, and shares information to persuade people to be for capital punishment.

The web site fits all the criteria I was looking for, except for one aspect. The criteria used in evaluating this site were accuracy, currency, objective, and authority. By looking for accuracy I wanted to see if the facts are true. So compared to other sources, their facts were or close to the same, therefore I considered the website to be accurate. The next criteria I used to evaluate the web site was currency. When looking for currency, I was seeing whether the site was up to date and relevant. As I scanned through the site I noticed the dates ...

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The web site fits all the criteria I was looking for, except for one aspect. The criteria used in evaluating this site were accuracy, currency, objective, and authority. By looking for accuracy I wanted to see if the facts are true. So compared to other sources, their facts were or close to the same, therefore I considered the website to be accurate. The next criteria I used to evaluate the web site was currency. When looking for currency, I was seeing whether the site was up to date and relevant. As I scanned through the site I noticed the dates were all within the past year, and they update the web site frequently. The third criteria, in my evaluation, was if the objective of the web site clear. By looking at the web site address one can determine its objective and get a clear view of what the site will consist of. The whole site is based on capital punishment and why it is a good thing. The final criteria used was authority, or who runs the site. This is the only part of the criteria that did not satisfy me. It is not clearly stated at any place on the site, who runs the site. However, they do offer an email address to respond to the site. Overall the site completes the majority of my criteria and I consider it to be a relative, informative site with excellent resources.

After reading the articles on the web site supporting and showing reasons why capital punishment is good, it has made me believe the same. I realize now that capital punishment is not a mortal sin. In thinking of the death penalty as the old fashion saying goes, “eye for an eye,” it’s not that bad. Human beings should not have the right to determine somebody’s length of life, but if that person ends another persons life how can they go without severe punishment. It is true they will probably receive life in prison, but chances are they could get out on good behavior and be free again. I believe if one can kill another life on purpose, they do not deserve to live either.

In conclusion, this is a very highly disputed topic that has no real answer. The answer is all based on what do you believe. However, for those who are against capital punishment, think of the victims and what they went through because of that one person. They took a life away, which is a sin, so why do they deserve to live and have us life with the chance that they could do it again if set free. This is a tough topic to talk about, but hopefully through solid research one can create or own opinion.