Final Project

Cover Letter

            I chose to revise project one because it was the project that I had the most fun researching. I found the topic intriguing which made it a lot more fun to write. Using the feedback you gave my on my paper I was able to identify a few major things in my paper that needed some serious revision. The biggest issue was not stating the significance of each of the points I was trying to make. Asking the question “so what” really helps a lot! I read each paragraph like I could not care less about the topic and I rewrote it trying to convince myself that what I was typing mattered. Once I got into that mindset it made the significance revision a lot easier to do. The other really big revision that I made to my paper was fixing vague comments that I would make and narrowing them down to specifics. Things like making changes such as converting “we” and “them” to “United States citizens” and “government officials”. I had no idea how hard it made my writing to follow when I didn’t explain exactly whom I was talking about at every second. Even if while writing it I sounded obnoxiously thorough, when I went back and read it the paper sounded so much more informative and professional.

            All the side notes you made and comments you wrote helped a tremendous amount. Before I even started to revise this paper I sat down a read it from start to finish like it was the first time I had ever read it. When I finished it was so much easier to see all the things that needed to be changed. It was almost like I could hear you in my head saying things like, “why is this significant?”, “why should I care?”, or “why is this relevant?”. It made the revision process somewhat of a breeze and it really helped me feel confident in the changes I was making. This semester has helped me become a better writer as well as helped me with revision.

Allison Smith

Professor Tetterton

Engl. 1100-110

Final Project

6 December 2012

Stand By an Eye for an Eye or Pay an Arm and a Leg

            There are seven hundred and twenty four Californian inmates on death row as of April 2012 (DPIC). Taxpayers in California are currently paying to supply prisons with the funds to put all of these men and women to death. These funds equal approximately one hundred and thirty seven million dollars every year (DPIC). Some raise the argument, “Is paying all the money really worth it? Can’t they just stay in prison for life?” But recent statistics show that in California it take about eleven and one-half of a million dollars per inmates to be housed in prison for life (DPIC). If there are seven hundred and twenty four inmates currently on death row in California, which there are, then taxpayers really contributing to an approximately eight and one-half of a billion dollars fund for life imprisonment. Thus raises the real question: is the cost of life imprisonment versus the cost of lethal injection for death row inmates worth keeping these men and women alive? Furthermore, what would we have to do in order to accommodate housing an extra amount of prisoners that in other circumstances would already have been out to death? Life in prison is a less efficient, less productive, and less logical way of dealing with our nations criminals as opposed to simply using the death penalty to enforce justice in our system.

            “There also appears to be no questions that, over time, equivalents LWOP cases are much more expensive… than death penalty cases” (Sharp). LWOP stands for “life without parole”. The upfront cost of lethal injection may be ore expensive compared to the eleven and a half of a million dollars to house inmates for life but one factor we have to consider is the age of the inmates we are housing (Sharp). Having a sixty year old man put on death row is a lot different that adding a twenty year old. The twenty year old will typically, if healthy, live longer than the sixty year old thus costing taxpayers even more money. The average age of the death row inmates in California as of April 2012 is forty-nine years old, but these people have been on death row for an average of seventeen years (CDRC)! Why would taxpayers want to waste any more of their money housing these inmates? Inmates will almost never be immediately put to death once convicted and charged with the death penalty and it is normally because of continued trials, trial objections, or a waiting period. All of which factor in to how long the inmate gets to live before being put to death. But taking the information that was given earlier in regards to the average time inmates spend on death row, if we are already looking and paying to keep them alive for seventeen years what makes sense about us paying to house them for even longer. So since we can’t control the age that these criminals will enter death row, we should at least control the amount of time they spend on it. The waiting period between conviction and death is unnecessarily long and a solution is to put new laws into action cutting down the criminals time spent in prison so taxpayers can stop wasting money on keeping them alive.

            Take into account the seven hundred and twenty four Californian inmates. Now, think about if that is just for the state of California, how many more death row inmates are there in this country? The answer is three thousand one hundred and seventy six inmates including six that are inmates of the US Military (Ex). So taking into account, now all of these inmates, where do they all stay? The average prison in the United States can house up to four thousand three hundred inmates based on the nations fifty largest prisons (Ex). To simply house the current death row inmates our government would have to construct an entirely new prison. We would obviously need this new facility to be maximum-security prison. The average cost to expand on a prison and to make this addition maximum-security is approximately seventy two million dollars (Ex). This price is just to add on five hundred beds and have that section of the prison be maximum-security. Seventy two million dollars is a lot of money to ask our taxpayers to contribute to, especially when that is only a third of the space that we need. To build a prison that would house all three thousand one hundred and seventy six death row prisoners and be maximum-security would cost the government approximately two hundred and ninety eight million dollars. And this is just enough space to house the current amount of death row inmates. What happens when these inmates are still living while more people are getting sentenced to LWOP? More expansions? More taxpayers’ money being thrown into this multi-million dollar project that is not even necessary? The government would have no choice but to build more facilities that could house these criminals. That is even more of our taxpayers’ money, more workers’ time spent, and more criminals that would otherwise be put to death that we now have to accommodate. If we rid the United States of the death penalty our government would be opening a floodgate releasing nothing but angry citizens, exhausted workers, and dangerous criminals that should be dead to begin with.

            Something other than our prisons that is already overcrowded are our court systems (Messerli). With the amount of personal time and cost requirements it takes to carry out a criminal trial it only makes sense that our system would come up with the idea of a “plea bargain”. A plea bargain is when the accused admits guilt to the crime they are being tried for in exchange for a lesser sentence. The death penalty comes in handy during plea bargains used in criminal court cases because it actually acts like and overlooking grim reaper sitting in the back of the courtroom. In other words, criminals being charger with murder, or really anything, do not want to be put to death, so why not at least use the death penalty to scare them into LWOP? The tactic of plea-bargaining saves time in trial and money spent on the trial. Something else to consider is the chance that the trial may be lost and the criminal gets off scot-free. The system would have spent money on carrying out this trial and attempting to sentence the accused to death and all would be a waste if the trial were lost. Some may argue that the tactic is a waste of money spent of lethal injection because it is not actually getting used on the criminals that deserve it. To rebut that argument one would say plea-bargaining is not always used in criminal cases. Plenty of criminals would still be sentenced to death. Plea-bargaining is only going to be used in cases where the evidence against the accused in not as strong as it needs to be in order to convince a jury to find the defendant guilty. In any other case where the prosecutor has evidence that is strong enough to give them the confidence to ask for the death penalty, they will not hesitate to get a conviction. This ensures that most of the criminals who deserve the death penalty will plead guilty and be put on death row but even the ones who are not put on death row will be, without a doubt, sentenced to life without parole. Having the death penalty as that “over-looking grim reaper” is essential when trying to get a plea bargain of LWOP. Without it the sentences being offered with the plea bargains would be less severe and the tactic would be less effective in putting the criminal away for as long as they deserve.

            There has always been a sense of fear in certain death penalty cases that the accused may actually be innocent. If the accused in a case was convicted and eventually put to death but later found to have been innocent would the court system be able to handle that sort of scandal? After something like that happening the court would be under constant scrutiny from the general public, especially from friends and family of the deceased. But the court system can put its mind to rest knowing that in this day and age with the technology that we have there is little to no space for error or mistake in the science of proving someone guilty (Messerli). DNA testing is used in just about every criminal case that goes to trial (Messerli). DNA evidence is something that cannot be easily overlooked considering it ties one person and one person only specifically to something such as a murder weapon, a crime scene, or even a body. “DNA testing is over 99 percent effective. And even if DNA testing and other such scientific methods didn’t exist, the trial and appeals process is so thorough it’s next to impossible to convict an innocent person” (Messerli). Need you be reminded that each trial has a jury of twelve members that must all agree on whether the accused is innocent or guilty? This decision must be unanimous and there mustn’t be even a sliver of reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty in order for the criminal to be convicted. “The number of innocent people that might somehow be convicted is no greater than the number of innocent victims of the murderers who are set free” (Messerli).

            “While the evidence tell me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes-mass murder, the rape and murder of a child so heinous that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment” (Obama). So here we have two options; Support capital punishment and the death penalty to enforce justice in our system or pay an astonishingly larger amount of money, create more of a prison overcrowding problem, let more criminals off the hook, and risk throwing away deserved justice in order to keep deadly criminals alive. Without the death penalty it seems as if the whole criminal justice system in less effective, less productive, and less logical. For me the choice is clear but this is where you have to decide for yourself. So what would you rather do? Stand by “and eye for an eye” or “pay an arm and a leg”?

                                                                   Works Cited

Boeri, David. “Just Your Average Mass. Jail: It’s Overcrowded.” WBUR. Boston

NPR New Station, 02 Mar. 2011. Web. 01 Oct. 2012. http://www.wbur.org/2011/03/02/prison-overcrowding.

CDCR. “Inmates Executed, 1978 to Present.” Inmates Executed, 1978 to Present.

            California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, 2012. Web. 01 Oct.

            2012. http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Capital_Punishment/Inmates_Executed..html

DPIC. “Cost of the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. DPIC, 2012.

            Web. 01 Oct. 2012. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/cost-death-penalty.

DPIC. “Death Row Inmates by State and Size of Death Row by Year.” Death Penalty

            Information Center. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 2012. Web.

            01 Oct. 2012. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row-inmates-state-and-size-            death-row-year.

Ex, Johnny, “Inmates in America.” Web log post. Jail Exchange. Jail and Inmate Search

            Blog, 16 Apr. 2011. Web. 13 Aug. 2012.

            <http://www.jailexchange.com/Jail_and_Inmate_Search_Blog/index.php/inmates-

            in-america-inmates-incarcerated-in-city-and-county-jails-during-2012/jail-

            populations/>

Messerli, Joe. “Should the Death Penalty Be Banned as a Form of Punishment?”

            BalancedPolitics.org. Balanced Politics, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2012.

            http://www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm.

Obama, Barack. “ListDom.” ListDom. Wordpress, 06 Oct. 2009. Web. 01 Oct. 2012.

            http://listdom.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/quotes-capital-punishment-2/.

SCDC. “South Carolina Department of Corrections.” South Carolina Department of

            Corrections. South Carolina Department of Corrections, 2007. Web. 01 Oct.

            2012. http://www.doc.sc.gov/faqs.jsp.

Sharp, Dudley. “Death Penalty Info! : Pro Death Penalty Information – Scheduled

            Executions. “Death Penalty Info! : Pro Death Penalty Information – Scheduled

            Executions. N.p., 2011. Web. 01 Oct. 2012.

            http://www.off2dr.com/modules/cjaycontent/index.php?id=27.

Sharp, Dudley. “Top 10 Pros and Cons – Death Penalty – ProCon.org.” Top 10 Pros and

            Cons – Death Penalty – ProCon.org. DPSI, 01 Oct. 1997. Web. 01 Oct. 2012.

            http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000.

           

Sickening

WARNING! THIS VIDEO CONTAINS SOME LANGUAGE AND DISTURBING IMAGES OF ANIMAL MUTILATION THAT MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS.
(I felt a bit like I was introducing one of those terrifying ghost shows on tv....viewer discretion is advised.)

After watching this video a few things popped into my head like:
HOW IS THIS LEGAL?!
DOES THE GOVERNMENT REALLY KNOW ABOUT IT?!
THESE PEOPLE MUST BE OUT OF THEIR MINDS!!
But one question I found myself asking was:
What sort of heartless beings can stand there and torture and living, breathing animal and feel nothing? No remorse, no pain, no guilt, just nothing.

The scene in the very beginning where the natives are throwing a concrete block at the sea turtles head and laughing about it is what was most disturbing to me. Also, watching them cut off it's limbs while it was still hanging on for dear life. These people are criminals, regardless of their native beliefs, and I really hope that the Australian government pursued this case like they promised to do at the end of the report.

Animal cruelty may be viewed differently around the world but there are just some things that should fall under the category of "cruel and unusual punishments", but for animals. I don't want to step on anyones beliefs or make anyone angry so I am going to attempt to tread lightly here. All I'm saying is that if I were to walk up to anyone on my schools campus (and we have a very diverse campus) and ask them if they think sawing off a sea turtles flippers while its still alive AFTER I've already thrown a concrete block at its head is cruel or not...I am pretty sure you can assume what their answers would be. And hey, maybe one of them won't think it's all that bad but at least we will know to keep and eye on that one or he could become the next serial killer we hear about on the evening news.

Creepy Connections

"According to a 1997 study done by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Northeastern University, animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people and four times more likely to commit property crimes than are individuals without a history of animal abuse."

Read more: Abuse Connection - The Link Between Animal Cruelty and Interpersonal Violence | Pet-Abuse.Com Animal Cruelty Database http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/abuse_connection.php#ixzz2BPXTIFrv

Okay, first of all, I had heard this claim before. The claim that if you see a little kid stomp on a cats head and laugh and walk away that they are going to grow up to be a serial killer. Now what I didn't know before doing some research is that this claim, this creepy connection, is very, very true.

Plus, wanna know something even creepier?? Look at these phycological definitions I found on the same page as the statement above:

"Abusing an animal is a way for a human to find power/joy/fulfillment through the torture of a victim they know cannot defend itself."

Now break down a human crime, say rape. If we substitute a few pronouns, it's the SAME THING.
"Rape is a way for a human to find power/joy/fulfillment through the torture of a victim they know cannot defend themselves."

Now try it with, say, domestic abuse such as child abuse or spousal abuse:
"Child abuse is a way for a human to find power/joy/fulfillment through the torture of a victim they know cannot defend themselves."

........................AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Okay, okay back to a more serious note. The similarities between these definitions are chillingly similar and the fact that this hasn't been publicized more is a bit ridiculous! If we had known this back when crazies like Patrick Sherrill, Albert DeSalvo, and Carroll Cole we could've totally seen all their vicious crimes coming and maybe, just maybe, done something to stop it!

Patrick Sherrill killed 14 coworkers at the post office he worked at before shooting and killing himself had a record and a history of stealing the neighbors pets and allowing his dog to attack, mutilate, and kill them while he just watched.

Albert DeSalvo was called the "Boston Strangler". He killed 13 women and also had a history of animal abuse. When he was younger he would trap dogs and cats in crates and shoot arrows into the  crates for fun.

Carroll Cole is in my opinon the most messed up crazy of them all. He was executed for 35 murders and in his past had enjoyed strangling puppies because he claimed it calmed him and made him feel powerful....what the heck?!

All of these mentally deranged killers may have been able to have been stopped if these signs of future abuse had been detected. It's sad really but even more than sad...it's frightening for our future. 

Need Help...Here's Help!

A lot of times people will witness animal cruelty and not even realize it. Or they will realize it but not know what to do about it. OR they will do something about it but go about it the wrong way! (scenarios...gotta love 'em!) Upon my research I came across the American Humane Association's website and within it I found a really cool page that had four different steps to reporting animal abuse. Those four steps are as follows:
1. Evaluate the situation
2. Report animals abuse
3. Understanding the law
4. Help prevent animal abuse
Personally, I think that numbers 2 and 3 should be switched because if a person doesn't first understand the laws about and around animal cruelty then they may go about reporting it wrong and the claim may never get investigated...and we can assume what happens to the animal if the claim never gets investigated.

Evaluating the situation can be tricky. Some key things you can look for are seeing if the animals collar is too tight. That can lead to strangulation. Also, just the appearance of the animal. Is it clean, does it look healthy, does it smell bad? All those are pretty easy to tell from afar. Is the animal constantly whining or growling or really acting strange in any way. Often times behavioral changes result from lack of love, care, and nourishment.

Reporting the abuse is pretty easy. If you have any suspicions you can always call your local animal control department or police department. But don't go around threatening your neighbor of being an animal killer because the one time you looked in the back yard the water bowl was empty. (YAY for more scenarios!) Thank God that society is really starting to recognize violence against animals as the big-scale problem that it is. This makes it easier for witnesses to be taken seriously with claims against people they know and see. Still, the laws vary from state to state so unfortunately we can't just throw them all behind bars or in a cage where they really belong.

Animals Used for (sick) Entertainment

We've all heard of dog fights, chicken fights, and cat fights (no not the ones you see in Mean Girls). The forced fighting between animals in which the vicious owners throw two trained animals into a ring and watch and cheer as they kill each other. The last animals standing "wins". The quotation marks around the word "wins" are just for effect. Yes, technically this animal won the fight but they will most likely die as well due to injuries acquired while fighting. The owner collects his money from all the other sick bastard that get off to watching innocent animals kill each other and goes on his merry way.

But often times what we don't think of is the animal cruelty that goes on behind the scenes. Those fighting animals have to be mad angry somehow...they aren't just born wanting to fight. The owners often use abuse and neglect to harden the animal up. Only feeding it meat and steroids to build its body and kicking and hitting it when it doesn't do what the owner wants it to do. But even scarier is the thought that all this could be happening right under our noses and that we may actually be paying for it to happen. "HOW?!?", you may ask. Well, let me just show you.

http://bit.ly/91rtzQ Click on this little link to see what families around the world pay for and allow to happen. Yes, it's not like we know...BUT NOW WE DO! This is happening in our circus' and petting zoos and we pay for it to continue. It's never going to stop unless we stop supporting it...knowingly and unknowingly.

Cold, Hard Facts

We can't know for sure just how many animals are tested on in laboratories every year because scientists aren't required to report all of the animals they use. The only animals they have to report using are any animal other than mice, rats, and birds. About 90% of animals used for testing, in fact, are mice, rats, and birds. So I ask you, ladies and gentleman: how in the world does this makes sense?! For all we know these scientists could be cutting off mice tails and attaching them to the birds butts for fun on their lunch break. I know we would like to think that the educated and intellectual minds behind creating things we use every day such as makeup and hair care products are generally good people but the truth is we just don't know! But nevertheless my goal here is not to convince you that we need to background check and cross reference our nations laboratory scientists (even though I wouldn't argue with it). My goal is to convince you that animal testing, cruelty, and violence is wrong and inhumane. I hope that my following blog posts will persuade you if you don't already agree with me.

In testing laboratories, small animals, like hamsters, rats, and mice, are usually kept in clear plastic boxes about the size of a children's shoebox. Any animals larger than that are usually kept in boxes that double in size as the animal gets larger. However, the size of the box may seem fitting for one animal but unfortunately on almost every occasion there are at least 3 of the animals in one box. Living in cages and boxes in a HUGE problem for animals like dogs, pigs, and cats. These are very intelligent animals that need love and care to survive. Often times the animals will die before even being experimented on because of unfit living conditions and neglect.

If the animals do live long enough in these terrible conditions they will inevitably be tested on. This research and testing has been documented and reported to be both painful and distressful for the animals and they are almost never given any sort of pain killer or reliever. On top of all that, if by some miracle of God the animal survives the living conditions AND the testing, the animals reaction is documented and then it is euthanized. Once the scientists have their results they have no need for a hurting, mutated animal anymore.

Annotated Bibliography

ASPCA. "11 Facts about Animal Testing." Do Something. Do Something, 23 Apr. 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-animal-testing>.

This website offers 11 facts about animal testing. These are just as I said, facts, and not opinions. The only place you will find opinions on this page is in the comment section below that readers have left. It mentions statistics on costs the labs spend on acquiring and using animals and the number of animals that labs have reported using in a given year. The list also contains information on how the animals are treated while being held in the labs before being tested on and after they are tested on and the scientists wait on results. Some of these facts and statistics really are shocking and I cannot wait to throw some of these numbers around in one or more of my upcoming blog posts.

PETA. "More Info on Animals Used for Entertainment." Www.peta.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-In-Entertainment/default2.aspx>.

As opposed to the previous site, this organization is very much opinionated. PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Through this organization you can pledge, donate, and volunteer to help in the fight against animal cruelty. It tells stories of how animals have been abused for the purpose of human entertainment. About how animals are being exploited, beaten, and malnourished in places that humans go to see a show such as the circus. Even something as innocent as a petting zoo can be a harbor for animal cruelty. This site includes a video that PETA recorded while undercover at the circus. I will definitely be including this video in one of my posts just as a behind the scenes look at what can actually happen and often times does actually happen when humans work with animals for the purpose of entertainment.

American Humane Association. "Report Animal Abuse." Report Animal Abuse. AHE, 2011. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://www.americanhumane.org/animals/stop-animal-abuse/report-animal-abuse/>.

This page that I sited leads to four additional pages. These additional pages are articles on how to evaluate, report, understand, and prevent animal abuse. Each article goes into depth and detail about the different signs of animal abuse including how to spot starvation, neglect, and physical abuse. In the next article it describes different tactics used and different place and people you can report the abuse that you've witnessed to. But, as described in the next article, there are legal issues with reporting some abuse. The article talks about the laws against animals violence and how they tend to vary state to state.
Pet-Abuse. "Abuse Connection - The Link Between Animal Cruelty and Interpersonal Violence | Pet-Abuse.Com Animal Cruelty Database." Abuse Connection - The Link Between Animal Cruelty and Interpersonal Violence | Pet-Abuse.Com Animal Cruelty Database. SPCA, 2001. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/abuse_connection.php>.

This article talks about the link that has been made, the line that has been drawn, connecting violence towards animals to severe crimes such as murder later in the humans life. It give specific examples of cases where convicted murderers and serial killers have admitted to, as children and/or young adults, been harsh, violent, and even lethal towards animals. It breaks a lot of terms, phrases, and statements down to their bare essentials. Things like the phycological explanation for why a person would commit a crime such as rape. Then it compares that definition to the definition of why a person would mutilate or kill an animal. The similarities in the explanations are chillingly similar and this article really persuades that they not be overlooked.

YouTube. Dir. TheLastOutpost. Perf. 7.30 News Cast Undercover Team. Extreme Animal Cruelty in Australia. YouTube, 09 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMV8SHQCG9g>.

This video was very disturbing to watch. It is a news report on endangered sea animal cruelty that goes on among the native tribes in Australia. It explains why it is legal for the tribes to do this on their land where compared to any where else on the island it would be punishable by law. The report tells that the only reason the natives are allowed to exhibit such cruelty on and among the animals is because it is "necessary to satisfy their cultural needs". The legislature in Australia didn't want a human equality battle on their hands so they simply just overlook these horrifying acts of cruelty. The report also addresses how tourists and locals respond to the natives hunting and slaughtering of the animals. There have been many confrontations and even fights that have broken out over this controversial issue.

ASPCA. "ASPCA Arrests Queens Woman for Neglecting, Starving Yorkie." ASPCA Blog. ASPCA, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. <http://blog.aspca.org/content/aspca-arrests-queens-woman-neglecting-starving-yorkie>.

This is a blog post/article of a story about a woman who was arrested in Queens, New York for neglecting and starving her dog. The dog had been in the custody of the ASPCA for approximately two months before his owner was finally put behind bars. The woman had brought her dog into the shelter and asked them to help claiming to not know how her dog ended up looking like he did, which was pretty out of shape. The shelter took him to the animal hospital where, upon thorough examination, was pronounced emaciated, anemic, suffering from pressure sores, and nonetheless...starved. If and when this woman is convicted of her misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty, she will face a $1000 fine and up to one year in jail. As for her dog, Hershey, he has made a 94% increase in body weight and is almost complete in his recovery. Once completely recovered he will be put up for adoption and hopefully going to a family that will treat him with the love and care that his previous owner did not give him.