Лабораторные работы (КИ МГОУ) / Capital Punishment

PART 5

CAPITAL PANISHMENT

Capital punishment (or the death penalty, or execution) is the killing of a person by judicial process for retribution, general deterrence, and incapacitation Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from Latin capitalis, literally “regarding the head”. So, it was originally a crime punished by the severing of the head.

Capital punishment has been used in virtually every society both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. In most places that practice capital punishment it is used for murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy in Islamic nations (the formal renunciation of the Stale religion). In many countries that use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty.

Severe historical penalties include breaking wheel, boiling to death, slow slicing, crucifixion, guillotining, crushing (including crushing by elephant), and so on. «Modern» methods of execution include electrocution, the tiring squad or other sorts of shooting, stoning in Islamic countries, the gas chamber, hanging, and lethal injection.

Since World War II there has been a consistent trend to abolish the death penalty. It is a matter of active controversy in various countries and states, and positions can vary within a single political ideology or cultural region. Among countries around the world, almost all European and many Pacific Area states (including Australia and New Zealand), and Canada have abolished capital punishment. In Latin America, most states have completely abolished its use, while some countries, such as Brazil, allow for capital punishment only in exceptional situations, such as treason committed during wartime. The United States (the federal government and 35 of the states), Guatemala, most of the Caribbean and the majority of democracies in Asia (e.g. Japan and India) and Africa (e g Botswana and Zambia) retain it So, more than 60% of the worldwide population live in countries where executions lake place These are the four most populous countries of the world: the People's Republic of China, India, the USA and Indonesia. They apply the death penalty and are unlikely to abolish it at any time soon.

Supporters of capital punishment argue that it deters crime, prevents recidivism, that it is less expensive than life imprisonment and is an appropriate form of punishment for some crimes Opponents of capital punishment argue that it has led to the execution of wrongfully convicted, that it discriminates against minorities and the poor, that it does not deter criminals more than life imprisonment, that it encourages a "culture of violence" and violates human rights, that it is more expensive than life imprisonment.

Public opinion polls and studies show various results. For example, in a poll completed by Gallup in October 2008 64% of Americans supported the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, while 30% were against and 5% did not have an opinion Yet surveys also show the public is more divided when asked to choose between the death penalty and life without parole, or when dealing with juvenile offenders Roughly six in ten people tell Gallup they do not believe capital punishment deters murder and majorities believe at least one innocent person has been executed in the past five years.

So, what do you think about it?

Task I. Ask questions to get the following answers:

1. _______________? - It's the killing of a person by judicial process.

2. _______________? - They are called "capital crimes / offences"

3. _______________? - It originates from Latin.

4. _______________? - To punish crime and to suppress political dissent

5. _______________? - Murder, espionage, treason, etc.

6. _______________? - In Islamic nations.

7. _______________? - No. modem methods of execution include, for example, electrocution and lethal injections.

8. _______________? - Since World War II.

9. _______________? - Yes, It's a matter of active controversy

10. _______________? - More than 60%.

11. _______________? - Because it deters crime, prevents recidivism, it's less expensive than life imprisonment.

12. _______________? - About 6 in 10 people, according to Gallup.

Task 2. Chart: fill in the missing information using the text:

	Capital punishment
1. Synonyms
2. Term origin
3. Capital crimes
4. Functions
5. Methods: a) historical hi modern
6 Countries that retain capital punishment
7. Countries that have abolished capital punishment

Task 3. Using your notes, speak about capital punishment.

Task 4. Read the following statements and say if they are true or false.

Death Penalty Quiz.

1. The death penalty saves taxpayers money because it is cheaper to execute someone than to keep them in prison for the rest of their life.

2. Since the death penalty was reinstated in the USA in 1976, more black people have been executed than white people.

3. After the American Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976, the first person to be executed was Gary Gilmore in Utah by a firing squad.

4. Since the death penalty was reinstated in the USA, very few people have been released from death row because they were innocent.

5. In most states with the death penalty, you can be executed even if you suffer from mental illness.

6. There are some slates in the USA where you cannot receive the death penalty for any crime.

7. Hanging has not been used as a method of execution in the USA for over 30 years.

8 When the police chiefs of the USA were polled on their views about ways to lower crime rate, only 1% named the death penalty as their top priority in reducing violent crime.

9. No woman has been executed in the USA for over 25 years.

10 Those who commit a crime when they are under 18 years of age are ineligible for the death penalty in the USA.

Answers to Death Penalty Quiz.

Question 1

The correct answer is False - Although it is certainly cheaper to inject someone with deadly chemicals than to incarcerate them for 30 or 40 years, the best studies on the cost of the death penalty indicate that it costs about $2 million per execution over the costs of a system which imposes life sentences for the same crimes. Moreover, about 70% of the costs occur at trial with only a minority of the costs for the appeal

Question 2

The correct answer is False - Through die end of February, 2006, 583 white people have been executed and 344 black people However, racism in the use of the death penalty is shown when one looks at the race of the victims in the underlying crime that resulted in sending the inmate to death row. You are much more likely lo receive the death penalty if the person you murdered was white than if the person you murdered was black.

Question 3

The correct answer is True - Gil more refused to appeal his conviction or sentence and was executed only three months after his trial.

Question 4

The correct answer is False - There have now been over 120 people released from death row after they were exonerated. In all of these cases, there was a re-trial ending in acquittal, the state dropped all charges after the conviction was thrown out by a higher court, or an absolute pardon was granted on the basis of innocence.

Question 5

The correct answer is True - While the Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that it is unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded, almost all states allow the execution of those with mental illness.

Question 6

The correct answer is False - Not quite true. Although there are 12 states that do not have the death penalty under stale law the federal death penalty governs certain crimes in every state.

Question 7

The correct answer is False - There have been three hangings in the U.S. since 1993.

Question 8

The correct answer is True - According to a Peter Hart Research Foil conducted in 1995 of police chiefs around the country, the officers named such measures as reducing drug abuse, a better economy, and controlling guns as more important than the death penalty in reducing violent crime.

Question 9

The correct answer is False - Velma Barfield was the first woman executed alter the reinstatement of the death penalty She was executed by lethal injection in North Carolina in 1984. Since then, ten additional women have been executed.

Question 10

The correct answer is True - The Supreme Court found the death penalty for juvenile offenders (those under 18 at the time of the crime) unconstitutional in Roper v. Simmons (2005).

Task 5. The web page "Critical Human Rights Issues" has been created by a group of Canadian students of Grade 6. For about 3 months they have studied the topic "Death penalty". Here are the opinions of 4 of them on the issue. Read and fill in the chart that follows.

Oliver: When I first started studying the death penalty I supported ft. I still support the death penalty because it puts lives of violent criminals to an end. Also, I think that if someone killed one of my family members, I would want him or her to die This form of punishment discourages some people from committing violent crimes because they realize That if they did it and got caught, they would be killed. The death penalty saves taxpayers money because they do riot have to support the criminals for their lifetime sentence in jail. When the criminal's life is terminated there is no risk of he / she re-committing a crime in my opinion Canada should have the death penalty for violent crimes.

Alex: Here are five reasons lo support the death penalty given to me by my father;

1. I believe an eye for an eye.

2. It prevents a murderer from having the chance to murder again.

3. It saves lax dollars from supporting murders.

4. People might think twice before they murder.

5. I believe in capital punishment only in case of 1st degree murder because if they are willing to plan lo kill someone they should be willing to pay the consequences. I agree with all of these reasons because 1 support the death penalty and 1 think killing people is wrong.

Mitchell: Discovering your opinion on something is very hard and often you change your mind. But I have had one month to make up my mind and I am sure that I am against the death penalty. I do not support the death penalty because I think it is wrong. If someone takes away another's human right to survive, we are no better than the original killer by executing him/her. One fact to back up my opinion is that there have been 102 people sentenced to death and freed because they were found innocent At first I supported the death penalty because I thought that it was a sense of fairness. Now I have changed my mind fully.

Caitlin: When I first started looking at the death penalty I was against it. When I learned more about it, I became more undecided. The reason I support it is because a person who killed people should be killed. This murderer doesn't have the right to kill. I am also against the death penalty, because if we punish the wrong person, not the murderer, and kill him, that would be very bad. If it were your family who got killed, would you want the person who killed them to die? If you do want them to die, then you support the death penalty. But if you don't think they should die, then you are against the death penalty If that was you and you were going to be killed, but you knew that you were innocent, how would you feel? So that's why I support the death penalty and I am against it. It is so hard to decide!

Who...	Oliver	Alex	Mitchell	Caitlin
- supported the death penalty at the start?
- was against the death penalty at first?
- has changed his/her opinion?
- is for the death penalty now?
- is against the death penalty now?

Task 6. Summarize the arguments that are for and against the use of capital punishment, add your own reasons if they haven 'I been mentioned in the previous texts:

Arguments for the death penalty:

Arguments against the death penalty:

Task 7. Translate the sentences into English:

1) В 18 веке до нашей эры Кодекс вавилонского царя Хаммурапи предполагал смертную казнь (а 25 преступлений, но убийство не было включено в их число.

2) Первым человеком, казненном на электрическом стуле, был В.Кеммлер, убийца из Нью-Йорка, это произошло 6 августа 1890 года.

3) В 1972 году Верховный суд США объявил неконституционными смертные казни от имени государства. Однако законодатели отменили (to lift) мораторий на высшую меру наказания в 1976 году.

4) С 1989 по 1991 г. в России 470 человек были приговорены к высшей мере, 228 человек были казнены

5) В 1995 году российский президент помиловал (to pardon) только 5 человек из 91 заключенных, приговоренных к смертной казни, которые подавали прошение о помиловании (tо petition for clemency).

6) К концу 1990-х п., в соответствии с российским законодательством, существовало свыше 30 преступлений, предполагавших (punishable by...) высшую меру наказания.

7) В России казнь преступников, приговоренных к высшей мере, предусматривает расстрел,

8) Российская президентская комиссия по помилованию рассматривает дела всех людей, приговоренных к смертной казни, независимо от того, подавали ли они прошение о помиловании или нет (to apply tot clemency).

9) Анатолий Приставкин считает, что в России совершается очень большое количество судебных ошибок, и случаи несправедливых приговоров, когда невиновные люди были казнены за преступления, совершенные другими, можно встретить во многих городах – Витебске, Смоленске, Иркутске, Екатеринбурге и т.д.

10) Многие ученые считают, что смертная казнь является проявлением расизма, несправедливости по отношению к бедным и умственно отсталым людям и часто заканчивается убийством невиновных, санкционированным государством.

Task 8*. Render the following Russian text in English.

Существуют ли более и менее гуманные способы смертной казни? Понятие гуманизма к казни неприменимо. Все виды наказания представляют собой насилие над человеком и отличаются только количеством страданий, которые жертва испытывает перед смертью. Конечно, наиболее «гуманным» методом считается тот, который приносит моментальную смерть. Но есть и такие, которые не убивают сразу, а заставляют человека страдать. В некоторых странах суды решают, как долго должен мучиться приговоренный преступник, перед тем как умрет.

Например, в Иране существует только 1 официальный вид казни повешение на подъемном кране. До 2002 года в стране казнили, забрасывая приговоренных камнями.

Как казнят?

Электрический стул.

Один электрод подводится к голове приговоренного, а другой к ноге. Первый разряд тока составляет 2000 кольт. Такое напряжение необходимо, чтобы ток прорвал естественную защиту кожи и заключенный потерял сознание. Далее напряжение снижается. Тело осужденного, как правило, нагревается до +140°С, что приводит к непоправимой деформации внутренних тканей и органов. Теоретически приговоренный должен потерять сознание сразу после подачи тока. Известны случаи, когда из-за неисправности стула голова осужденных загоралась, и им приходилось ждать, пока его починит, испытывая ужасные боли от полученных ожогов.

Повешение.

Есть три вида повешения: на длинной, короткой и стандартной веревке. Если осужденного сталкивают с достаточно высокой позиции, то смерть наступает от перелома позвоночника в основании шеи. В случае с короткой веревкой причиной смерти обычно является перекрытие дыхательных путей. Человек умирает не сразу, а в среднем через 7-15 минут после повешения. Чем короче веревка, тем большие мучения испытывает человек перед смертью.

Смертельная инъекция.

Самый «гуманный» метод исполнения смертного приговора. Используется в некоторых штатах Америки. После того как осужденною привязывают к специальному столу, в его вены на обеих руках вставляются катетеры, один из которых используется для казни, второй же служит для подстраховки в случае, если первый не сработает

Газовая камера.

Осужденного на смерть вводят в газовую камеру и пристегивают к кушетке. Шторы окон газовой камеры поднимаются, чтобы свидетели казни могли видеть происходящее внутри ее. Через специальные отверстия, находящиеся непосредственно перед лицом заключенною, в камеру поступает газ. В качестве отравляющего вещества, как правило, используется цианид водорода (излюбленный нацистами «циклон Б») или угарный газ. Смерть от цианида водорода очень болезненная, однако, по словам экспертов, человек обычно теряет сознание сразу после первых вдохов.

Забрасывание камнями.

Осужденного с головы до ног заворачивают в белый саван и закапывают в землю по пояс. Затем начинается казнь. Человека забрасывают камнями до смерти. Камни подбираются средней тяжести, чтобы удар, получаемый от них, приносил боль, но не убивал сразу. Нередко на казнь приводят детей приговоренных и заставляют смотреть, как умирает их отец или мать.