Non-Fiction Response Analysis

1) Society should be protected from murders like Hidalgo who killed two people for money. However,
people argue that the courts have added “aggravating circumstances” that any murder can qualify for
death penalty. Its arbitrary system puts innocent lives in danger, by sentencing to death row people who
aren’t deserving of the punishment. The list of death-eligible crimes is so expansive that its entire capital
punishment system is unconstitutional.
2) The connection I can make from this text and other texts I've read is that though many people do deem
fair to kill a murderer for justice, the system that evaluates whether or not they’re guilty, is incorrect. The
death penalty seems like a correct punishment but its arbitrary system is wrong,so the governors and
citizens seek to fix it (Ex: Proposition 66).
3) The author’s purpose is to persuade its readers and to make them believe that the death penalty has so
many “aggravating circumstances” or that its “arbitrariness” basically can make anyone eligible for the
death penalty.
4)The audience is anyone that needs more information or is seeking cons of the death penalty. I know this
because the title clearly states that the supreme court should end the death penalty. Since the audience is
someone looking for the different aspects of the death penalty, then the text will show the different
(negative) sides of the death penalty.
5) The most relevant details the author uses to argue their position are the facts that the system is is too
arbitrary which leads to it being unconstitutional, and the poor/minorities are disproportionately affected.
6) The most prevalent in the writing was Logos.
A)“The 1972 Furman decision struck down the death penalty entirely on the grounds that it was
being applied so arbitrarily that it violated the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and
unusual punishment”(Times Editorial Board).
“If nearly every murder can be eligible for a death sentence, the the system has swung back back
to arbitrariness”(Times Editorial Board).
“Executions often occur so long after the underlying crime was committed that they serve no
penological purpose. So far this year, 23 people have been executed after spending an average of
19 ½ years on death row”(Times Editorial Board).
B) The author exercises their credibility by using credible sources and by being a credible
source.
7) A possible theme for this text would be that the death penalty’s arbitrary system puts many lives in
danger.
8) This text helped me understand the topic of the death penalty by showing me the faults in its system.
9) An element that I would change would be the evidence and the fact that they used a criminal as a base
for the article.
A) If this were to be changed, then the article would be more professional and even more credible,
without a bias.
10) OPTION #1: Throughout the article “The Supreme Court has the chance to end the death penalty.
They should take it” by the Times Editorial Board the message being transmitted is that the death penalty
is an arbitrary system that puts many innocent lives in danger. By using commas constantly in the article,
the publisher makes the readers pause for emphasis of the words. “If nearly every murder can be eligible
for the death sentence, then the system has swung back to arbitrariness”(Times Editorial Board). Clearly,
when the commas are put to use, the readers pause to think about the severity of the next words. This
helps emphasize the graveness of the topic, the arbitrary system that kills innocent lives.