A YouTube channel called Jubilee recently came out with a video about a group of people performing a mock jury trial. They discuss a real case involving a school shooter who’s our age, and they have to choose between sentencing him to life in prison or the death penalty. https://youtu.be/y5Du1Qht9Vg
A lot of “jurors” brought up different ideas we’ve been talking about in class and new ideas having to do with prison reform. But I’m curious; if you were a juror what would you sentence this 18 year old to and why?
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4 comments:
I don't want to sound harsh but I would vote for the death penalty. He killed 4 of his classmates and wounded 20 others. Those kids lost their lives for no other reason than that kid was not in the right state of mind. The current justice system would probably give this kid a life sentence and he would just sit in a cell and be a waste of taxpayers dollars.
After listening to the podcast “The Job” and hearing presentations about “The Row” I’ve become more aware of what the death penalty actually entails. I won’t say if I’m for the death penalty or not, but what I can say is that it causes more harm than justice. First, the median cost of 1.26 million dollars for death penalty case costs is substantially more expensive then non-death penalty case costs through the end of incarceration that averages out to about $740,000. So giving this kid a life sentence would, in fact, cost less of “taxpayers dollars” as opposed to giving him the death sentence. Secondly, as highlighted in the podcast I listened to, the death penalty affects a whole lot more people than the one being killed. Death Row is a depressing place to live AND work. Prison staff members are affected not only by the environment of death row, but those who are given the job to help conduct the death penalty are forever effected by taking a human life. Yes, this kid has done a horrible thing and he deserves to pay for what he has done, but the death penalty is the easy way out.
I think a very important aspect of our justice system should be exploring the pasts of criminals like school shooters and what led them to commit the crime they committed. We should be more focused on why these kids, not even 18 yet, do the things they do. Most of them had to have endured some type of psychological trauma that led them to act out in violence. These children deserve second chances in our society and we need to give it to them.
I think that it is wholly unethical to put someone to death. I think that every time someone takes an action, they are making it ethical (at least in the actor's world) to take that same action. Therefore, if the government executes someone, then it becomes ethical for anyone to take a life. If the government decides that it is unethical for citizens to kill other citizens, then the government shouldn't be able to kill people either.
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