Due to our recent focus on argument pieces, I chose to read
an article sharing a perspective on the controversial topic of the death
penalty. The author of “With Death Penalty, Let Punishment Truly Fit the Crime”,
Robert Blecker, argues that death by legal injection is unjust, these horrific
criminals should be punished by much more extreme means, gunfire, to adequately
create moral equilibrium. He argues this point by using current events and
rhetorical questions to appeal to pathos and sway the audience to see his viewpoint.
In regards to the terrible murderers existing in today’s society Blecker offers
current events such as the Boston Marathon bombing and shooting in the movie
theater in Aurora. By using such well-known and fairly current tragedies he is
able to appeal to the audiences emotions and using extreme circumstances to
justify his radical argument. Using rhetorical questions to test the validity
of people who claim to desire punishment that fits the crime is also effective
by putting ideas into reality. Many people would agree that punishment should
be dependent on the severity of the crime, but Blecker twists this into saying
that life imprisonment does not allow for variation once crimes reach a certain
level of horror, therefore no longer fit to the individual crime. Blecker
opposes lethal injection and believes that mass murderers and criminals that
execute similar crimes should be killed by a firing squad, an extremely radical
idea. He argues that lethal injection is too humane in comparison to the crime
that the individual committed and that they also should be treated at a harsher
level. Petty crimes put people in jail to be abused and possibly killed by a
fellow inmate while those on death row comfortably await their execution where
they lay on sheets and die by a painless IV-like injections surrounded by
family. The description of an often-overlooked unjust system appeals to logos.
Blecker finds this system extremely unjust and proposes a radical idea of
execution by firing squad. Although he is an extremist, he effectively conveys
his message through appeals to pathos and logos.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/opinion/blecker-death-penalty/
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| Means of Execution URL: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/opinion/blecker-death-penalty/ |
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