Name: ____________________

Date:_____________
Period: _________
CAPT Writing
SHOULD THE DEATH PENALTY BE
ALLOWED?
Overview
The purpose of this Writing test is to determine
how well you can write to persuade others to think
as you do about an issue. In this test, you will read
two short articles about an important issue, take a
position on the issue and write a first draft of a
persuasive letter. You must support your position
with information from each of the source materials.
In this case, you are writing to the editor of a local
newspaper regarding the following question: Should
the death penalty be allowed?
Your Score
Your score will be based on the following criteria:
1. Position Did you take a clear position on the
issue?

Comprehensiveness Did you use

information from each of the three sources that
are provided?
3. Support Did you support your position with
accurate and relevant information from the source
materials?
4. Organization Did you organize your ideas in
a logical and effective manner so that your audience
will understand and follow your thinking?
5. Clarity and Fluency Did you express your
ideas clearly and fluently using your own words?
2.

Organizing Your Time

You will have 55 minutes to complete this test. The
following schedule is suggested:
25 minutes for reading the source materials and
planning your letter; and
30 minutes for writing your letter.
You may re-read or refer to the source materials at
any time during the test. You may also highlight or
make notes on the sources if this is helpful to you.
Know your purpose for writing and remember to:
READ, THINK, PLAN, WRITE.

SHOULD THE DEATH

PENALTY BE ALLOWED?
1,136 people were executed in the US
from 1977 through 2008, primarily by
means of lethal injection. Most death
penalty cases involve the execution of
murderers although capital punishment
can also be applied for treason,
espionage, and other crimes.
Proponents of the death penalty say it is
an important tool for preserving law and

order, deters crime, and costs less than

life imprisonment. They argue that
retribution or "an eye for an eye" honors
the victim, helps console grieving
families, and ensures that the
perpetrators of heinous crimes never
have an opportunity to cause future
tragedy.
Opponents of capital punishment say it
has no deterrent effect on crime, wrongly
gives governments the power to take
human life, and perpetuates social
injustices by disproportionately targeting
people of color (racist) and people who
cannot afford good attorneys (classist).
They say lifetime jail sentences are a
more severe and less expensive
punishment than death.
YES, THE DEATH PENALTY SHOULD
BE ALLOWED

"Abolitionists may contend that the death

penalty is inherently immoral because
governments should never take human life, no
matter what the provocation. But that is an
article of faith, not of fact, just like the opposite
position held by abolitionist detractors, including
myself... The death penalty honors human
dignity by treating the defendant as a free moral
actor able to control his own destiny for good or
for ill; it does not treat him as an animal with no
moral sense, and thus subject even to butchery
to satiate human gluttony. Moreover, capital
punishment celebrates the dignity of the
humans whose lives were ended by the
defendant's predation."
Bruce Fein, JD, General Counsel for the
Center for Law and Accountability, in an
American Bar Association website article
titled "Individual Rights and Responsability The Death Penalty, But Sparingly"
(accessed June 17, 2008)

"Immanuel Kant said it best. He said a society

that is not willing to demand a life of somebody
who has taken somebody else's life is simply
immoral. So the question really... when the
system works and when you manage to identify
somebody who has done such heinous evil, do
we as a society have a right to take his life? I
think the answer's plainly yes. And I would go
with Kant and I would say it is immoral for us
not to."
Alex Kozinski, JD, Circuit Judge in the US
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a
Nov. 7, 2002 Hoover Institution
NO, THE DEATH PENALTY SHOULD BE
ALLOWED

"It is the position of the Jewish Social Policy

Action Network to oppose the death penalty as
it is currently applied in the United States and to
press for the immediate abolition of capital

punishment... Our position is compelled by a

moral imperative, our belief that the death
penalty is immoral and constitutes an
unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment
that is at odds with our best traditions, fosters a
culture of violence, and teaches our children
the wrongheaded lesson that the way to settle
scores is through violence, even to the point of
taking a human life."
The Jewish Social Policy Action Network
(JSPAN), in its website section titled "Death
Penalty Policy Center"

"Embracing a certain quotient of racial bias and

discrimination against the poor is an inexorable
aspect of supporting capital punishment. This is
an immoral condition that makes rejecting the

death penalty on moral grounds not only

defensible but necessary for those who refuse
to accept unequal or unjust administration of
punishment."
"Even if one concedes, for the sake of
argument, that some people like Timothy
McVeigh deserve to die, we run into all sorts of
problems drawing the line between who
deserves to live and who deserves to die... At
the end of the day, we make so many mistakes
in making those decisions that the only clear
lesson is that we do not deserve to kill."
Michael L. Radelet, PhD, Professor and
Associate Chair at the Department of
Sociology of the University of Colorado at
Boulder, in an Aug. 29, 2001 University of
Colorado News Center website presentation
titled "Top Death Penalty Expert Joins CUBoulder Faculty"

RESPONSE
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