Unit IV includes Chapter 13: Crime and Corrections Policy. As it is stated in this chapter, one of the most controversial issues in the Texas judiciary system is the death penalty. Until recent years, Texas, specifically Harris County, was known as the ‘death penalty capital’ of the United States, that title is now held by Los Angeles County in California. (If you want to view statistics, names and crimes of offenders, FAQs about the death penalty in TX, go to https://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/.)

The United States remains in the minority of civilized nations in the world that still uses death as punishment for certain crimes. Many see the penalty as barbaric and against American values. Others see it as an important tool in fighting crime. What’s your opinion?

• This forum has 2 parts, you must answer both parts to receive credit.
• Explain each of your answers in small paragraphs of 5-7 complete college-educated sentences with good content, grammar and spelling each.
• Separate the paragraphs with numbers and in order.
• Write your first and last name only in the subject line.

Part I

Answer all the questions below (yes?, no?, why?)

1. Is the death penalty constitutional?

2. Is the death penalty racist?

3. Is having the death penalty a deterrent against crime?

4. Does the death penalty bring justice to the victim’s family?

5. Most convicted murderers cannot afford a ‘top lawyer’ (usually a graduate of an ivy-league university, highly paid and very successful lawyers) The 6th Amendment establishes the right to counsel in criminal cases paid by taxpayer money (the state provides them with a low-paid usually ineffective public defenders. Should taxpayer money be used to provide those who face the death penalty the services of a ‘top-lawyer’?

6. In 2011, Texas decided to end the practice of allowing condemned inmates to chose their last meal because it was expensive and inmates did not eat what they ordered. Today, they are fed the same as the general prison population. What do you think about this decision? Is is a ‘cruel’ decision? (Here’s an article about this http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/us/texas-death-row-kitchen-cooks-its-last-last-meal.html?_r=0)

7. The average death row stay is 10-15 years (there was an inmate that was executed 26 years after he committed the crime!). The lengthy stays in prison make death penalty more expensive than life in prison (attorney fees, court reporters/staff, clerks, court and prison facilities, food, etc… put a high burden on taxpayers; each death execution can cost up to 2 million dollars at the end) Should we establish a maximum number of years that can pass for an execution to take place? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing this?

8. If a juvenile (under 16) plans and brutally murders another person, should he/she get the death penalty?

9. If a mentally ill individual plans and brutally murders another person, should he/she get the death penalty?

10. Should child rapists get the death penalty?