Identify at least four reasons that have been fueling the Death Penalty Moratorium Movement.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Students should provide at least four of the following: 1) Sister Helen Prejean’s book and subsequent movie, Dead Man Walking. Kirchmeier likens the impact of this book on the death penalty to the impact Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, had on the slavery abolition movement; 2) the criticism of Supreme Court Justices Blackmun and Powell, as well as that of many other judges; 3) the 1997 American Bar Association statement urging a moratorium on the death penalty; 4) new technologies have led to the discovery of wrongly convicted and sentenced individuals. Between 1973 and 2002, 99 prisoners were released from death row after new technology proved their innocence or at least established the absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt; 5) new research indicates that innocent persons are executed; 6) the economy was good and the crime rate declined during the 1990s; 7) there was considerable media attention regarding cases where prisoners who had been sentenced to death were later set free; 8) many states added the possibility of life without parole.