3/28/2020 0 Comments Death Penalty Paper EssayThe death penalty is something that many people do not have a clear decision on. Many people support the death penalty, while others wish for the death penalty to be abolished, yet there are some that support the death penalty, but only in certain cases. My personal opinion is that a person commits murder and is sentenced to death there should be no waiting. I believe 24 hours from the time the person is sentenced to death, the state should follow through with their punishment and execute. There are people in the world that support the death penalty and often say that the death penalty is a deterrent for future criminals who are thinking and plotting out their heinous crimes or murder as we sit in our living rooms right now. Capital Punishment does not act as a deterrent force. Crime rates do not decrease in states where capital punishment is used. This statement can be neither proven nor disproven. How do you measure the amount of people who have been deterred from crime? Do you take a poll? Is there a survey conducted where people voluntarily admit they would have murdered had they known they would not be executed if they were caught? No. You can’t prove that it deters crime. So, even if it does, there is not enough evidence to support this theory. Do you agree with this statement? For me, when I think of a criminal they are not thinking of consequences of their actions, they are not thinking of whom they are going to hurt, they are only thinking of getting what they want. They think in the “Nowâ€, they simply just do not care. If they had any sort of emotion or remorse before the crime is committed then our prisons wouldn’t be so over populated as they are today. Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty, reports that scientific studies have not produced any conclusive evidence showing that capital punishment, is a deterrent for future crimes to be committed. I believe the only deterrent for a murderer not to commit a horrific crime again would be execution. Executing a dangerous criminal ensures that he will not kill again. There have been several notable cases where men were paroled, or escaped from prison after being convicted of murder and killed again. The death penalty protects our community by eradicating a harmful criminal from society. A few good examples are Randy Greenwalt, Arthur Shawcrossm, Kenneth McDuff, and Daniel Camargo Barbosa. Various people who are opposed to the death penalty say that Capital Punishment condemns the innocent to die. According Amendment V in the United States Bill of Rights, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital crime, or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment of an indictment of “grand juryâ€. While it is true that a few innocent people have “slipped through the cracks†of the justice system and been convicted and executed unfairly, it  is extremely rare. Usually, attorney’s find new evidence to support a criminal’s innocence by the time all appeals have been exhausted. Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is provided. Almost all defendants in capital cases cannot afford their own attorneys. In many cases, the appointed attorneys are overworked, underpaid, or lacking the trial experience required for death penalty cases. There have even been instances in which lawyers appointed to a death penalty case were so inexperienced that they were completely unprepared for the sentencing phase of the trial. Other appointed attorneys have slept through parts of the trial, or arrived at the court under the influence of alcohol. FACTS ABOUT ATTORNEYS AND THE DEATH PENALTY: •Almost all defendants who face capital charges cannot afford an attorney and rely on the state to appoint one for them. However, often times appointed attorneys are overworked, underpaid, lack critical resources, and are either incompetent or inexperienced. As a result when death sentences are set aside by the federal courts, it is often because among other reasons the trial attorney was so incompetent that the accused’s constitutional right to effective counsel was violated. Slipski 4 •In 2009, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions conducted an official visit to the United States to examine the administration of the death penalty in Alabama and Texas. Alabama has the highest per capita rate of executions in the United States, while Texas has the largest total number of executions and one of the largest death row populations after California and Florida. The Special Rapporteur expressed concern about deficiencies in the administration of the death penalty in Alabama and Texas, including “the lack of adequate counsel for indigent defendants.†He called for the two states “to establish well-funded, state-wide public defender services†and recommended that “oversight of these should be independent of the executive and judicial branches.†The state of Alabama has no statewide public defender system even though its death row occupants are overwhelmingly poor with 95% indigent. •An examination of 461 capital cases by The Dallas Morning News found that nearly one in four condemned inmates has been represented at trial or on appeal by court-appointed attorneys who have been disciplined for professional misconduct at some point in their careers. •An investigation by the Texas Defender Service found that, “Death row inmates today face a one-in-three chance of being executed without having the case properly investigated by a competent attorney and without having any claims of innocence or unfairness presented or heard.†•In North Carolina, at least 16 death row inmates, including 3 who were executed, were represented by lawyers who have been disbarred or disciplined for unethical or criminal conduct. With all this being said regarding lawyers and the accused what do you think? Do you think if the accused had an expensive attorney that they would not be facing the death penalty and get life in prison instead? I guess that this is a question that we all would love to have the answer to. As they say money makes the world go round. Think of all the costs that are involved with the death penalty. Tax payers pay to house, cloth, food, and the medical bills alone for this one inmate will cost us millions. All the millions of dollars that are spent on this one life can be used to better our communities, or schools, educate our children, who are our future. We should stop wasting money on rehabilitation for these inmates, and put the money into what is important, our children, the future of The US. I fully support the death penalty, it makes me so upset to think back to the Cheshire, CT murders, the amount of money spent on two men who were caught at the scene of the crime, confessed to murdering an innocent woman and her kids, and beating her husband almost to death. They should have been executed the day after they committed that horrific crime. Instead, the government wasted and is still wasting millions of dollars on two criminals who do not deserve to see the light of day. Something needs to change in our government. I believe Connecticut should be more like Texas. A state that enforces Capital Punishment to the fullest. Enough is enough! Criminals should not be running our lives and getting away with murder, literally! In conclusion, after reading all the facts stated above, how do you feel about the death penalty? Do you think we should be paying for these criminals to live in prison with a meal, a bed to sleep in, medical attention, and clothes on their backs? In my opinion the answer would be, no. Then again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. The punishment should fit the crime, and I am all for an “eye for an eyeâ€, “a tooth for a toothâ€, what about you? Works Cited: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 16 Feb. 2006. The U.S. Department of Justice. 29 Nov. 2006. Texas Department of Criminal Justice www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/dr_facts.html U.S. Death Penalty Facts Amnesty International USA, www.amnestyusa.org Death Penalty Information Deathpenaltyinfo.org
0 Comments
This term refers to bringing the support services to children with disabilities within their normal classroom setting. The article “Special Education Inclusion†mentions that inclusion commits to putting the child with disabilities in the regular classroom environment, so that they can benefit from being around their peers (Stout 2001). Inclusion is stated by Robert Fieldman as integration of all students, even those with the most severe disabilities, into regular classrooms and all other aspects of school and community life (2004). The success of these practices rides heavily upon the teachers and school being flexible with their instruction methods and only pulling the child out of class when necessary services cannot be given in the regular classroom. Here the students can be challenged, feel accepted and learn from the higher expectations placed on them.
To answer the question of why it is healthy for the growth of an average child, there are multiple reasons learning interactions are beneficial. Stout then listed the findings in the study Success For All that were positive changes for the regular education students: Less fear and more awareness of human differences, growth in social cognition, improvement in belief in oneself, ability to support peers with disabilities, and caring friendships (2001). Emile Durkheim argues that “attachment and belonging are essential to human development and integrating children with disabilities into regular classrooms is desirable (Noll 2004)â€. State laws that teachers need to know about is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. IDEA requires that assessments be made for young children experiencing developmental delays. This also included the expansion of Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings for more experts to be involved, hence the intervention made must be backed by research. This Act states says in summary that all children with disabilities in both private and public schools be put in separate facilities only if the severity of their disability will keep them from receiving a suitable education in the regular classroom. The Public Law 94-142 is explained by Lewis and Doorlag as the start to guaranteeing appropriate services to the maximum extent. For instance, each student with disabilities must have an IEP with the parent’s consent and will receive the least restrictive environment possible (Lewis and Doorlag, 2005). The children are often not going to be able to explain exactly what they are struggling with, so I will be informing these teachers about what to watch for. At this point they will be getting a handout from Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies that covers visual, auditory, and intellectual disability symptoms and strategies. This attached handout explains warning signs, such as sensitivity to light and squinting when there are visual difficulties, therefore seat them away from the glare or window and read aloud what is written (even largely) on the board. If the student has not come near the level of development of their age mates, then seek possible assessment for intellectual difficulty. The classroom could be adapted by getting a volunteer to help with giving extra time and instructions. If a child is struggling with hearing, he may have trouble following directions or be uninvolved; hence, seat the student where they can be near teacher and peers to see how they are responding and use visual aids in lessons (INEE 2005). In Rick Lavoie’s article, Early Warning Signs of Disabilities, he gave the following list of areas that are commonly affected: l) Spoken language: delays, disorders, and deviations in listening and speaking 2) Written language: difficulties with reading, writing and spelling 3) Arithmetic: difficulty in performing arithmetic operations or in basic concepts 4) Reasoning: slower processing and organizing thoughts 5) Memory: challenges in remembering information and instructions Strategies Going into this situation is inevitable, yet how teachers deal with it can make everyone succeed…. As I address the preschool teachers about inclusion, I intend for them to leave being motivated and prepared for inclusive situations. Hence, I am going to give them strategies and preparation, in handouts, for dealing with children who have disabilities; many of these suggestions could be brought up in a child’s IEP meeting. Peer tutoring can happen easily and be incredibly effective way to promote social acceptance of special education students. General education students will gain experience by working with them, while the special needs student gets a fresh status, increased acceptance, occasion for socializing, all while practicing academics (Lewis and Doorlag, 2005). Sitting up front, next to a role model student can be very helpful as they can undertake assignments with a little nudge of help. Along the same lines, if the IEP allows it, volunteer tutors and professional aids are also beneficial to the need for one-on-one assistance in class. Presentation of lessons has to be done to suit various learning styles. Illustrate things for visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners by using things like overheads, Power point, group skits, video clips, demonstrations, artwork, poems and anything else where you can creatively engage the students. Along these same lines, it would be best to find out the learning styles of all of the students. Hence, when you place them in groups or seek to help the students with disabilities, it will be in a style that reaches their individual needs. Learning disabilities are a widespread part of inclusion, because three to five percent of all children might have ADHD alone (Slavin 2003). Slavin’s section about Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities outlines particular ways to be effective. Prevention is encouraged by the “High-quality early childhood programs and primary grades teaching significantly reduce the number of children identified with learning disabilities†(Slavin 2003, p. 420). He goes on to explain that positive feedback regarding improvement in learning helps them do better. It helps to split up large assignments into intermediate goals, so that they can receive feedback as they go along and accomplish it correctly. Board games can be used to promote social growth of the learning disabled student with their peers; these fun activities can be effective builders of academic skills. (Lavoie, n.d.). Misbehaviors often root from frustrations, hence learning-disabled students often “respond well to a rapid pace of instruction with much variety and many opportunities to participate†(Slavin, 2003, pg. 421). As mentioned above, many disabilities result in behavior issues that need to be addressed in positive reinforcement. Begin by defining suitable behavior, give genuine approval, and be consistent with reinforcements. Physical and sensory impairments need strategies that regular teachers can use in mainstreaming classrooms. For visual impairments, help the student form a set-up of the classroom by exploration, enlarge text, and bring them a larger desk for the Braille writer (Lewis and Doorlag 2006). While for hearing impairments, the child should be where they can see the teacher and the students, away from background noise, and the teacher should be checking for understanding of the material. References 1. Disability Rights Commission (2005) DRC Design and Technology by Reading Room. http://www.drc-gb.org/citizenship/talkvideos/index.asp. 2. Feldman, Robert S. (2004). Childhood Development (3rd Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. 3. Hagberg, Laurie. (1998). http://adhd.kids.tripod.com/adhd.html. “Outside the Box: Lessons I’ve Learnedâ€. 4. Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). (2002 – 2005). “Inclusive Education of Children at Riskâ€. http://www.ineesite.org/inclusion/disabled.asp. 5. Lavoie, Rick.†The Teacher’s Role in Developing Social Skillsâ€. http://www.ricklavoie.com/articles.html. 6. Lewis and Doorlag. (2006). Teaching Special Students in General Education Classrooms. Pearson Education, Inc. New Jersey. 7. Noll, James (2004). Taking Sides (12th Edition). Guilford, Conn. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin. 8. Special Education. (2004). http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/SpecialEducation.html |