The Topic: Capital Punishment Special Note: This site is intended to be educational. However, some of the images and information included in this project may be disturbing, especially for younger learners. While we encourage all to learn, we hope that parents and teachers will be there to help explain events and guide young learners through the complexities behind what they may read and see. Adults should preview sites before providing access to younger children.   Easier - Capital punishment is the penalty or sentence of death for committing a crime.   Harder - Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, most executions in the United States have resulted from murder convictions. However, the sentence of death has been imposed for such serious crimes as armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, and treason.   People disagree about whether capital punishment is moral or if it is effective in discouraging crime. Many oppose the death penalty because they consider it cruel. Critics also believe that there is a risk of executing mistakenly convicted people. Supporters of the death penalty believe that in some instances, people who take another human life deserve to forfeit their own lives. Many supporters also argue that the threat of death discourages crime.   Death Penalty Information Center http://www.essential.org/dpic/ This site contains information, history, statistics and opinion about the death penalty in the United States.   Death Penalty Update: Here & Abroad http://www.infoplease.com/spot/deathworld1.html Here is a capsule profile of capital punishment as exercised in the U.S. and around the world.   Pro-Death Penalty.Com http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/ This site is a resource for pro-death penalty information and resources. Another Related Website: 2) Pro Death Penalty by Wesley Lowe http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Capsule/2698/cp.html   Human Rights: Death Penalty http://www.derechos.org/dp/ This links-site connects to several websites both pro and con related to capital punishment. Similar Links-Sites: 2) Death Penalty http://dpa.state.ky.us/~rwheeler/deathpen.htm   After visiting several of the websites, complete one or more of these activities. We recommend that you first gain an understanding of the history, chronology, and procedures involved with capital punishment before you get into the statistics and form your final opinion.   Create a Capital Punishment Poster. Make a poster that expresses your views regarding the issue of capital punishment.   Write a Letter to a Politician. Write a letter to your governor and/or your representatives expressing your opinion about capital punishment. Make sure that the letter presents a logical, clear argument that is backed up by facts. Make it persuasive. Express your opinion.   Complete a Capital Punishment WebQuest. Adapt or follow the procedures found at one the the following webQuest sites: 1) Capital Punishment: Is It Ever Justified? (Grade 11-12) http://a41064.west.asu.edu/students/ahudson/WebQuest.html 2) Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? based on Richard Wright's 'Rite of Passage' (Grade 9-12) http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/mission/roppage/rop.html   Research and Debate. First examine both sides of the issue. Then pick a view and debate the issue. Next, switch sides.   Websites By Kids For Kids Capital Punishment: Life or Death? http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~tonya/spring/cap/group1.htm Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are as many different opinions as there are people. At this project site, both sides have been presented.   Death Penalty - When Life Generates Death (1998 ThinkQuest Project) http://library.thinkquest.org/23685/ Explore the history of the death penalty from ancient times to the present.   More Websites on Capital Punishment Capital Punishment at the California Department of Corrections http://www.cdc.state.ca.us/issues/capital/capital.htm Here you will find a history, statistics, and pictures from the state of California. Related Websites: 2) Focus on the Death Penalty (University of Alaska) http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/ 3) Statistics (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/statistics/stats-home.htm   Capital Punishment: The Death Penalty http://www.religioustolerance.org/execute.htm This site has information from different religious perspectives.   The Case Against the Death Penalty by Hugo Adam Bedau, American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org/library/case_against_death.html This website explains eight objections to the death penalty.   Death of Innocents from the Hartford Advocate http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/articles/innocents.html This article is about death row inmates who were later exonerated.   The Death Penalty at Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/about/initiatives/deathpen.htm The United States continues to rely on the death penalty despite the international trend away from its use.   Death Penalty and Execution News http://www.smu.edu/~deathpen/updates.html This site posts recent news articles related to capital punishment.   Death Penalty: An Overview at the Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, Ithaca, NY) http://wwwsecure.law.cornell.edu/topics/death_penalty.html Congress and state legislatures may prescribe capital punishment for certain heinous crimes. It has been held that the death penalty is not a per se violation of the eight amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.   Death Penalty at Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/dp/index.html Information about the death penalty from an organization that views it as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.   Death Penalty in the United States of America http://www.amnestyusa.org/rightsforall/dp/index.html This site houses a large archive of reports on the topic.   Death Row Roll Call at The Nation http://www.thenation.com/deathrow/ Here you find a a monthly list of death row inmates scheduled for execution Information for the list comes from the Death Penalty Information Center. Related Websites: 2) Death Penalty News & Updates http://www.smu.edu/~deathpen/ 3) Death Penalty USA Pages http://www.agitator.com/dp/   Ethics Update: Punishment and the Death Penalty http://ethics.acusd.edu/death_penalty.html This site links to court decisions, legislation, statistical information, and information about capital punishment.   The Execution at PBS Frontline http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/ This site examines capital punishment through the life and crimes of self-confessed, double murderer Clifford Boggess, who was executed in Texas in June 1998 after spending almost ten years on death row.    Reference Sites Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/ This online reference brings together data about all aspects of criminal justice in the United States presented in over 600 tables from more than 100 sources. Other Crime and Justice Statistics: 2) Links-Site at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/links.html 3) Bureau of Justice Statistics (U.S. Department of Justice) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/   Supreme Court Cases on Rights of the Accused: Punishment (Oyez Project, Northwestern University) http://oyez.nwu.edu/cases/cases.cgi?mode=subjects&command=do_search&andor= any&keywords=Rights+of+the+Accused%3A+Punishment Here are abstracts, written opinions, and RealAudio of the original oral arguments for cases on the death penalty and other criminal punishment issues.   Websites for Teachers Capital Punishment (Grade 8) http://middleschool.net/SSt99/ssMBj/ssMBj99.html Using a variety of resources, students will investigate the capital punishment issue.   Capital Punishment Debate by J. Weis (Grade 8) http://eaves.math.utk.edu/~williams/Goals/weis4.html Students are to read "The Bet," use the Internet finding sources both pro and con, and then debate the issue of capital punishment.   Compassion on Death Row? (Grade 6-12) http://nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/990510monday.html This lesson encourages students to analyze and debate, through writing and discussion, the politics and ethics behind the ability of governors to grant clemency to inmates sentenced to the death penalty.   death penalty execution death row capital punishment murderer heinous crime convict 'Dead Man Walking' pro con moratorium lethal injection electrocution hanging jail lethal gas inmate penal code condemned status DNA test stay justice conviction electric chair eighth amendment firing squad gallows trial gas chamber guillotine death row justice victim  clemency deterence innocence race juvenile humane treatment appeals process incompetent defense life sentence      Created by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, 1/99 Updated, 7/00