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-
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- The
Topic:
- Capital
Punishment
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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.
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- Easier - Capital
punishment is the penalty or sentence of death for
committing a crime.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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.
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- Create a Capital Punishment
Poster. Make a poster that expresses
your views regarding the issue of capital
punishment.
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- 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.
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- 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
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- Research and Debate. First
examine both sides of the issue. Then pick
a view and debate the issue. Next, switch
sides.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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
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- Capital
Punishment: The Death Penalty
- http://www.religioustolerance.org/execute.htm
- This site has information from different
religious perspectives.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Death
Penalty and Execution News
- http://www.smu.edu/~deathpen/updates.html
- This site posts recent news articles related
to capital punishment.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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/
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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/
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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death penalty
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execution
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death row
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capital punishment
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murderer
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heinous crime
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convict
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'Dead Man Walking'
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pro
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con
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moratorium
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lethal injection
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electrocution
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hanging
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jail
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lethal gas
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inmate
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penal code
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condemned status
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DNA test
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stay
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justice
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conviction
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electric chair
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eighth amendment
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firing squad
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gallows
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trial
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gas chamber
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guillotine
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death row
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justice
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victim
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clemency
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deterence
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innocence
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race
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juvenile
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- humane treatment
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appeals process
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- incompetent
defense
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life sentence
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- Created by
Annette
Lamb and
Larry
Johnson,
1/99
- Updated,
7/00
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