Death Penalty

Why I chose my topic?

Capital punishment and executions have been one of my interests for about 2 years now. I became interested in the death penalty by seeing the movie Brave Heart and when William Wallace gets executed. Also I wanted to learn what stoning was and when I found what it was I wanted to learn more. Because I couldn’t think of many things to choose my topic on I researched all of them until I found more things I liked.

What I already knew?

I already knew what stoning is and what the gallows were but other than that I did not no all that much about executions. I also knew how and why you executed a person now a days and I knew that we used to have juvenile executions. Also last but not least I knew why they had executions in the old days (witches, sorcery, enemies, murderers, etc.)

What I wanted to find out?

I wanted to know how you used to kill/execute a person in the 1300s and during the medieval times. Also I wanted to learn why people who were younger than 18 got executed.

Then I wanted to learn more in depth why someone would want to become an executer. Lastly I wanted to learn why you would want to become and executer and how you would have the guts to do it.

Research

On my first day of researching I found absolutely nothing. I did find what executions that you can get but I already new that. Also all the book I picked out had nothing on executions it only had stuff on one guy’s particular execution. So on the first day of research I got nothing done.

On the second day I decided to go on the internet. I didn’t find much but I did fine more than day 1. I found a lot of things on Wikipedia but since its not trust worthy I checked its info in other sites. I found that most of Wikipedia’s stuff was true.

On the third, fourth, and fifth days I did a combination of internet and book searches. I found a ton of info about how many executions there were and are going to be. Also I found a lot on the number of people who get off of death row. Lastly I found some info on why people get on and off death row three or four or maybe more times in a sentence.

What I learned?

We have the death penalty to ensure that the criminals who were jail will not commit another crime as the first. Also we have the death penalty for the more serious crimes to stop and protect that it doesn’t happen again. Since 1976 when the death penalty was legalized again , there have been 1099 exicutiond since then as of october 2007.

My opinion now

I think that execution is a god way to scare people not to do any bad crimes but I don’t like that the government does not enforce it much. If the criminal has a good lawyer the chances of getting the death penalty is slim to none. I think any 2nd degree murder or worse should be an automatic death penalty. These are my views on the death penalty after my research.