1. By Caitlin Swirbul The death penalty keeps crime lower. But why kill a criminal to show that killing is wrong? How to Learn More And Reply to this Article... DNA Innocence Project Is the death penalty a popular punishment? Death Penalty, good or bad? What is the death penalty? This picture shows an electric chair This picture shows an electric chair

2. How to Learn More And Reply to this Article... DNA Innocence Project Is the death penalty a popular punishment? Death penalty, good or bad? What is the death penalty? What is the death penalty? THINK: Would you kill someone now that you no what the Death Penalty is? This pie chart shows how many people of different races are on death row This pie chart shows how many people of different races are on death row

3. How to Learn More And Reply to this Article... DNA Innocence Project Is the death penalty a popular punishment? Death penalty, good or bad? What is the death penalty? THINK What's your opinion on the death penalty? POWER WORDS! Contributes: helps or gives to WHY THE DEATH PENALTY IS GOOD: *Justice is better served *Less crimes will be committed by other criminals WHY THE DEATH PENALTY IS BAD: *It sends the wrong message, why kill people who kill people to show killing is wrong? *The prisoners family could suffer from having their loved ones put to death by the state *There is a possibility that innocent men and women could get be put to death! * It contributes to the over population in the prison cells Death penalty, good or bad?

4. How to Learn More And Reply to this Article... DNA Innocence Project Is the death penalty a popular punishment? Death penalty, good or bad? What is the death penalty? Is the death penalty a popular punishment? The death penalty is used in many states. For example, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Connecticut and many more. Some states that do not have the death penalty are Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont, Maine, and a few more. In total, There are 34 states with the death penalty and 16 without. Texas has had 466 executions from 1976 until now. This is the highest number out of all of the United States. The least executions were in Connecticut, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. They all had one execution. In 2005, the Supreme Court made a law that juveniles could not get the death penalty. Also, in 2002, the Supreme court made a law that people with mental disabilities could not get the death penalty. POWER WORDS! Executions: being killed because of committing a crime Juveniles: person under age 18 in jail This graph shows the execution by region in the USA

5. How to Learn More And Reply to this Article... DNA Innocence Project Is the death penalty a popular punishment? Death penalty, good or bad? What is the death penalty? DNA Innocence Project The DNA Innocence Project is a project that two men named Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld invented. This project is supposed to help find out if prisoners are innocent. For more than 15 years, the project has worked to free innocent people. The DNA testing is used to protect the innocent and identify the guilty. Before the DNA Innocence Project, people would get killed before even taking their DNA test. This means they could have been innocent and a criminal was still out there. Some examples of DNA testing are fingerprints and hair samples. Since every finger print is different, then it’s easier to find a criminal. Also, every person’s DNA is different. POWER WORDS! DNA testing: using body samples to figure out a person’s identity A DNA strand. Fingerprint sheet from police station Fingerprint sheet from police station

6. How to Learn More And Reply to this Article... DNA Innocence Project Is the death penalty a popular punishment? Death Penalty, good or bad? What is the death penalty? How to Learn More and Reply to this Article... To learn more about the perils of The Death Penalty, go to the websites below: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/NBC _News_tonight_DNA_shakes_up_forensic_sci ence.php www.balancedpolotics.org To respond to this Feature Article, go to the Watson’s Winners Blog, below:Watson’s Winners Blog http://cwatsondps.wordpress.com/