Overview

In Brief

Students will be intro­duced to the issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in a web/­class­room/­group-work envi­ron­ment. They will learn the argu­ments from both sides of the issue in order to reflect on their own posi­tion on the mat­ter and make informed argu­ments for their posi­tions. In addi­tion, using the informed argu­ments and resources drawn from the Web site, the stu­dents will read and delib­er­ate on the issues of ethics and jus­tice using an actu­al case study in order to human­ize the debate.

As ear­ly as the found­ing of the United States, the valid­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has been a con­tentious pub­lic issue. Recognizing the con­tro­ver­sial nature of this sub­ject, it is nec­es­sary for informed citizens/​students to exam­ine the issue from dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives. As a result, cit­i­zens and stu­dents alike will be able to inves­ti­gate this top­ic and make informed, per­sua­sive argu­ments con­cern­ing their position.

Rationale

The pur­pose of this unit is to engage stu­dents in an exam­i­na­tion of the argu­ments con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, cul­mi­nat­ing in debates using an actu­al case study. In doing so they will learn about the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty, the stages in a cap­i­tal case, argu­ments for and against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and insights drawn from expert tes­ti­mo­ny. In addi­tion to learn­ing about the com­plex issues asso­ci­at­ed with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, stu­dents will become more famil­iar with iden­ti­fy­ing and mak­ing sound argu­ments, engag­ing in crit­i­cal eval­u­a­tion of both sides of the issue, and mar­shal­ing evi­dence to sup­port posi­tions for both sides. Finally they will debate about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment using an actu­al case study and reflect on their own opin­ion of the death penalty.

Outcomes

Students will be able to iden­ti­fy the cen­tral issues con­cern­ing the death penal­ty from the past to the present (ear­ly uses of the death penal­ty, deter­rence, pub­lic sen­ti­ment and the death penal­ty, stages in a cap­i­tal case, and – most impor­tant­ly – the issues of fair­ness, equal­i­ty, and jus­tice). They will be able to iden­ti­fy the states that have and donât have the death penal­ty, in order to inves­ti­gate issues of fair­ness and jus­tice. Students will be able to explain the dif­fer­ent posi­tions on the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment issue, using evi­dence from the site. The sim­u­la­tion will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents to engage in sub­stan­tive con­ver­sa­tions regard­ing the issue. Students will also par­tic­i­pate in a per­sua­sive debate on the sub­ject, using infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by the web site as well as core demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues for support.

Themes

Fairness and equal­i­ty under law; jus­tice; pur­pos­es of pun­ish­ment; iden­ti­fy­ing and con­struct­ing sound arguments.

Time:

2 weeks +

Materials needed:

1. Computer lab with Internet capabilities
2. PowerPoint soft­ware or poster board and relat­ed dis­play mate­ri­als (for group presentations)
3. Death Penalty Main Site primarily:
   1. History of the death penal­ty (to pro­vide his­tor­i­cal con­text, the­mat­ic illus­tra­tion of past and present pub­lic opin­ion, and to serve as evi­dence for reports)
   2. Arguments and expert tes­ti­mo­ny for and against the death penal­ty (to explore the var­i­ous posi­tions and use of evidence)
   3. Stages in a cap­i­tal case (to show the process, from com­mis­sion of the crime through tri­al, sen­tenc­ing, and appeals)
   4. Four Death Penalty Case Studies (to serve as real life exam­ples for stu­dents’ delib­er­a­tion, reports and discussion)
4. Death Penalty Main Site secondarily:
   1. State-by-State Data (to use in inves­ti­gat­ing issues of fair­ness and jus­tice — espe­cial­ly regard­ing dif­fer­ences between states and ethnicity

Assessment:

Quick writes; learn­ing jour­nal entries (See Appendix for descrip­tions); group work con­sist­ing of site research and argument/​rebuttal posters and pre­sen­ta­tions; one final essay; per­for­mance-based assess­ment of group work (in oth­er words, how stu­dents work togeth­er, how effec­tive­ly they share respon­si­bil­i­ty for the work, and how they engage the content covered).