Capital Punishment & the Power of Persuasion

The fact that there are two current movies dealing with the subject of capital punishment seems to indicate a revival of interest, and controversy, about the subject. This is probably a response to the resumption of executions in several states during the past few years. For awhile, capital punishment was in a holding pattern, tied up in court appeals and uncertainty at the popular level. Its resumption was met with horror by some groups, and with approval by others. The intent in this paper is to look at the way in which individuals who are either in favor of, or against, capital punishment use language and rhetoric to persuade other people to their position.

The View of the Victims and Their Friends

Actually, this could more accurately be labelled as the viewpoint of the friends and families of some of the victims, since the victims themselves in capital cases are generally dead. This view was ably portrayed in both the book, and the movie, Dead Man Walking (Prejean, 1994). In general, the mode of expression, or tone, is that of outrage. The question that friends and family ask is: How can you forget about the victims? Why do you care so much about the rights and feelings of perpetrators? Why is your compassion only directed at them?

In both book and movie, Sister Prejean was challenged by members of the murder victim's family to pay attention to their needs, not simply the needs of the victims. They ch

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presents the religious argument in his encyclical letter. While he does not absolutely preclude use of the death penalty in all cases, he makes a strong argument against its common use. As he noted, one of the Ten Commandments forbids people to kill. However, as he also noted, Scripture allows for selfdefense, which in some instances might mean that the individual defended against would be killed during the course of that selfdefense. Fundamentally, however, he noted that only God is the master of life and has the right to give or take life. The rights of the individual and of the community are limited to selfdefense. He noted that it might be possible to sanction the use of execution if there was no other possible way to defend society, but that this is unlikely in the modern world. Pope Paul argues from Scripture and tradition. His rhetorical style is marked by a number of italicized passages which highlight his major conclusions, such as "Only God is the master of life!"(Pope John Paul, 1995, 97). These emphasize his main point, which is that the church, and God, support a gospel of life which sees all human life as sacred. This gospel of life (the title of the encyclical itself is a rhetorical device) mandates th
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Sister Prejean, John Paul, Helen Prejean, Wendy Kaminer, Kaminsky Oklahoma, Sidney Callahan, Ten Commandments, Persuasion Introduction, David Kaplan, Argument Life, capital punishment, death penalty, sanctity life, victims' rights, noting capital punishment, human life, dead walking, john paul, gospel life, alice kaminsky, catholic church, favor death penalty, lengthy appeals process, victims victims themselves, families victims victims,
Approximate Word count = 2457
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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