Thursday, October 11, 2018

Death Penalty

In the last part of The Stranger Mersault is on trial for the murder of the Arab and he eventually receives the death penalty. This reminded me of a Netflix documentary series called I am a Killer where they talk to people in jail who are on death row.  Each episode is about a different person and they basically tell the story of their crime or crimes that got them to where they are on death row.  They go into how they feel about the crime they took part in as well as how they feel to be on death row.  It is interesting to hear from the people themselves, especially because some of them weren't even the people who killed anybody.  The way Mersault thinks about death row and awaiting the people to come and get him to bring him to be put to death is such a unique, and sad, way of thinking that thankfully most of us will never have to know.  It's interesting how they have shows now that go into such depth with prisoners on death row.  It brings up the discussion of whether or not the death penalty should be an option.  In the show you can get many different perspectives on this from the inmates themselves, one even saying that he killed the man to get on death row, as he was already in prison.  Is the death penalty effective in punishing people?

2 comments:

  1. I think this is an extremely interesting blog post. It is weird to think about people being intentionally killed for the crimes that they have committed. No matter how bad I believe the death penalty is not an appropriate punishment. I believe if someone commits a crime and the worst punishment that they should receive is life in prison. Taking away another persons life especially because they took someones life as well is not only inhumane but its ironic. We shouldn't do something we told someone not to do. It is almost abusing authority.

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  2. The end of part two does have an interesting perspective on the death row and highlights some of its inhumanity. Usually, however, prisoners will receive a date for their execution eliminating much of the fear Mersault has. Even with that, the death penalty is quite cruel; it takes someones life and sometimes as you briefly mentioned the court gets it wrong. I acknowledge it is a cruel punishment but I am not against it morally, because mass murderers like the person who committed the sandy hook murders deserve the death penalty, but rather on a financial level. Death row costs more to maintain and takes a long time to get processed costing Americans more money than needed, I believe the crime should be reserved for only the worst of the worst criminals.

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