Vargas Guadalupe 1 Vernica Vargas Guadalupe Professor Joe Marinello Introduction to Corrections Friday, November 15, 2013 My Perspective

on the Death Penalty Prior to watching this video I had a different position on the Death Penalty. I felt like both stands provided good arguments, but I was leaning more towards the intent of the Death Penalty, which was the execution of criminals who committed capital crimes. My opinion was based on the eye for an eye belief. I always thought that if you killed someone and deprived them of their rights and life you did not deserve any rights either and also deserved to die. After watching this movie and listening to Davis Gales arguments like when he said that murder is not deterred by the thought of execution, I started doubting the reasons that backed up my position because I actually agreed with him. When David Gale quoted Gandhi saying The old law of an eye for an eye leaves us all blind in response to the governor who had the same idea as me, it completely changed my mind. The main reason that I was for the Death Penalty was because I was against murder, but this quote made me realize that by supporting the Death Penalty I was supporting murder also. Another reason that this film changed my mind was because it made me realize that the Criminal Justice System is not perfect. I honestly think that it is very rare that when a person is executed they are completely sure that they were guilty. I always have the thought of someone being executed while being innocent because of a mistake of the system. The system is run by

Vargas Guadalupe 2 humans, and all humans make mistakes. So I feel like we should not execute more people because even with all the new technology like DNA and fingerprint evidence, we cannot be one hundred percent sure that the person convicted is guilty or not. I understand the reasons that David Gale framed himself. He did it because he really did believe in his cause. If I was an activist, and trying to make people think the same as I do, which is going against the Death Penalty, I would not have done what he did. I would have researched more on mistakes that the system had committee before and provide them to the public. I would also create some scenarios in which the innocent person gets executed and ask the public how they feel about that. Another strategy I could use is that I could try and convince the public that by killing a murderer it makes us murderers like them. We would not be any better. Instead, we could just imprison for a long time, for life if possible, because no one wants their freedom taken away. While in prison, inmates lose some rights. They get told what to wear, eat, do, and even when to bathe. They are being punished in some kind of way. They are separated from society where they cannot do any harm. Also, while in prison we can try to rehabilitate them and receive treatment. In conclusion, I always thought that people who commit a capital offense should be executed because they did not deserve to have any rights. I thought that when depriving a person of their rights, all of their rights should be taken as well, but after watching this movie my mentality completely changed. This movie made me realize that I was thinking just like a murderer and was contradicting myself.