Death Penalty Blog

1. There are many stages in a trial for the inmate to try to prove that he/she is not guilty. The first is Direct appeal which allows the defendant the look for mistakes or errors made in the trial that would lead to a retrial. then there is a post conviction review that goes over the entire trial and looks for any mistakes that anyone missed. After that they move on to the Federal Habaes Corpus which allows the defendant to make a plea to a federal judge, if that does not work they will try the next step which is clemency where a higher power like the Supreme Court or the state government can intervene and give a less severe punishment.
2. All of the methods of execution seem really awful to me but if I had to say the firing squad, the electric chair, hanging and the gas chamber all seem pretty cruel and unusual. The lethal injection is much better and much more humane, if you could even say that, than the others which all cause a lot of pain. Hanging is a thing of the past in my mind. It is too much a symbol of dark times in our history and we should move on from it. The electric chair is obviously no longer used but it sounds like one of the worst ways to die, its painful and it mutilates the body. The firing squad is way too Soviet Russian-esque to me, it is also very painful and can be drawn out for a long while. Choking is proved to be one of the worst ways to die because the victims are fully cognisant of it and it is very emotionally hard.
3. The data was unsurprising to me, I knew that places in the south and California would have more people on death row. It is also expected for there to be less women on death row, the amount of blacks and whites seemed pretty close but the black was always higher and I think this is arbitrary I don't believe that people would rather convict an African American man over a white man.
4. Some of the things included in the former Illinois statute of capital punishment seemed a little out of place, but it was very specific and left very little wiggle room which is good for something like that. But I am glad that the death penalty is gone in Illinois, I think life without parole is a perfect punishment for a murderer.

Public Schools Rights to Drug Test Students

While I agree with the court that is is completely acceptable for the school to administer drug tests to students if there is a drug problem. But what District 92 classified as a drug problem just seems like normal teenage rebellion, it doesn't seem like the drugs are out of control at this school. If I would think that a problem would have to have causalities and probably harder drugs. There was no evidence that a majority of the students were consistently using illegal substances. It seems to me that the problem is isolated to a small, but vocal, contingent of students. I also am of the opinion that if schools require you to pass a drug test to get into extracurriculars that it will discourage people that are on the edge of giving up drugs because they are afraid that they will get caught and there will be dire consequences. After school activities should be able to foster a safe environment for people of all different backgrounds. If a student gets tired of the drug scene or maybe thinks that joining a certain club will give them something else to focus on instead of the peer pressure to start using drugs. This will create more of a divide at the school and be a deterrent for these students who want to find a safe haven from what they have been dealing with from their so called friend.

College tuition: Is it worth the extra costs?

As I am applying to colleges I can visibly see my parents getting worried about the costs and I completely understand why. When looking at private colleges AND public universitys, it costs a surprising amount of money to attend. Most universities advertise their tuition costs as how much you will pay but they do not add that there is also a 10,000 dollar room and board plan, a meal plan, and incredibly expensive books and supplies. I wouldn't exactly say that we are a struggling family  but there is only so much a year that any family can put towards my education. The FAFSA forms that help calculate the ability of one family to pay are extremely skewed, it may be that my family can pay 40,000 dollars for college a year but at what cost. Will my parents be able to take vacations, or what about be able to pay the mortgage? Will they even be able to put food on the table? These price hikes are coming at a time when it is most essential for young adults to get a college degree. People who decide not to get college degrees are paying for it because they are not qualified for raises and promotions, which means that they will never be earning more money then they are at that moment. So you see why it is important to get a degree but we also need to understand that it might just be impossible for some families to pay for their childrens tuition costs, which does not provide great opportunities for their futures.