Death Penalty Webquest
Mr. Nichols Contemporary Issues
Social Controversies Standards
CI.10 Identify various contemporary religious perspectives on social issues.
CI.30 Evaluate the premises, claims, and evidence presented by various authors to compare and contrast points of view on a given current events situation.
CI.31 Assess the effectiveness of the death penalty.
A question to consider as you explore.
Revisiting the idea of life, how is this debate similar to the issues surrounding abortion?
Assignment for webquest
Based on your reading, viewing and listening, answer the following questions from both a pro and con viewpoint. Use evidence from what you learned to defend your response.
- Do we have the right to decide if someone lives or dies?
- Does the death penalty deter crime?
- Is it appropriate to execute someone who has committed murder? What about the idea of a life for a life?
- Should we have faith in our justice system to make the decision to sentence a person to capital punishment?
Once you have answered the questions, use them to write a defense of your assigned "side" of the issue. You must cite specific evidence in your argument, and you must try to convince someone that yours is the correct viewpoint.
Death Penalty Overview
- General facts and history from Global Issues in Context--Includes global outlook
- General facts and history from Opposing Viewponts--US specific
- History of the issue from ProCon
Amnesty International Global Report on the Death Penalty
2014 Report--Includes world map
US executions from 1976-2015
Read the following articles on the "Pro" side of the debate
Read the following articles on the "Con" side of the debate
Death Penalty Video & Podcasts
Death Penalty and Politics
A video that examines the death penalty viewpoints of politicians and current presidential candidates.
Affluenza Teen
Latest news on the affluenza teen, Ethan Couch.
References
"Sing Chair." Wikipedia. 2010. Wikipedia. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.