Capital Punishment In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Topic Overview
Throughout American history, the most corrupt criminals were punished through a wide variety of unpleasant means. In 1692 during the Salem witch trials, alleged witches were often sentenced to hanging, while in the 20th century, the electric chair was most likely the way a convicted murderer would be executed. Now in 2015, we have more “humane” methods of dealing with America’s most guilty law offenders such as lethal injection and lethal gas. Capital punishment is simply a sugar-coated term for legalized murder, which happens to be the most common crime people sentenced to death are convicted of. Instead of adopting hypocritical behavior, lawmakers should concentrate on less irreversible alternatives for the death penalty.
Thesis Statement
The death penalty is an illogical and inhumane form of severe punishment that should be completely replaced with life preserving sentences.
Narrative
As silent as chilled, vacant prison cells, the forty-three attentive souls in the sterile courtroom did not move, did not blink, did not even breathe as they processed every single phoneme the stoic judge proclaimed. Even though they witnessed each word, only the last one echoed throughout the room and was interpreted by the audience, “guilty”. Daniel Allen was not a popular man among the spectators, but no one celebrated the anticipated verdict. DNA evidence, motive, lack of an alibi, everything except a confession proved, to the jury at least, that he was indeed the premeditated murderer of his wife and two young daughters. As the word reverberated in his pounding head, Daniel went cold for he knew what the sentence entailed as a resident of a small town in Texas— up to 25 years on death row awaiting his cruel fate. Daniel’s heart sank to his feet confronting his appalling destiny, but the grueling pain seemed like a thumb prick in comparison to the skull cracking moment he lost his family. Remarkably, only seven years later on a beautifully radiant summer’s day Daniel received his lethal injection- his beating heart slowed as he drew his final breath. He spent his last moments imagining his loving wife and sweet, freckle-faced girls smiling, laughing, and enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich-filled picnic in their own backyard: a Tuesday night ritual. One year later to the day, Richard Baker confessed to the murder of the three Allen women before driving off of a bridge into the Mississippi River. The pathologist told law enforcement that the chance of finding a matching DNA sequence to the one discovered at the crime scene was 94 million to one. After Richard’s confession, further examination revealed that the sequence was present in one out of every thirty two men; a hair found in Richard’s apartment tested positive.
Illustration/Example
Captivating a broad array of audiences in an enamouring true story, Capote’s In Cold Blood influences the reader to reevaluate their views on capital punishment by telling the background of the murderer Perry Smith.

In the novel, the innocent Clutter family is murdered in their own home one night, but the details of the case are not disclosed at first. The reader, however, is aware that Dick Hickock and Perry Smith embark on a nationwide road trip after committing the brutal crime. The childhoods of both characters are brought up in great detail, but the reader is especially meant to sympathize with Perry who grew up with much adversary in his life like a physical handicap, divorced parents from different states, and suicidal siblings. Because Perry did not receive much good behavioral leadership, tried to convince Dick not to follow through with the homicides, and likely had a mental illness that inhibited rational thinking, the audience was outraged when Perry Smith was sent to death row and eventually killed. In Cold Blood argues that committing a capital crime did not erase the good person that Perry was, but that he simply trusted the wrong people and made poor decisions that should not be punished by

death.
Definition
Capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime- murder for the murderers. By having control over a person’s life, lawmakers are put in an extremely powerful position of authority. If authorities declare that the “authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime” is justifiable, legal or not, then inferiors can interpret their statement to mean any type of killing or crime in general is justifiable. Many “crimes” are deemed worthy of the death penalty, but in several cases of capital punishment the convicted suspect did not unquestionably commit the crime. Illogical and unreliable, the definition of capital punishment reveals the flaws of sentencing a potentially innocent person to death.
Classification/Division
Currently in the U.S., thirty one states permit capital punishment, while the nineteen others have deemed it unconstitutional.

In 1972, the Furman v. Georgia case temporarily caused capital punishment in the United States to cease until distinct guidelines about the crimes that required the death penalty were written. Until states revised their laws, capital punishment was ruled cruel and unusual punishment. Before Furman, there were no clearly defined laws about what constituted capital punishment, so the process to sentence a capital criminal was much faster and easier. By adding an appeal system, most states permitted capital punishment once again, but the prisoner’s time spent on death row drastically increased. Adding an appeal system did not make killing a human being any less cruel and unusual; in fact, ordering a person to live in fear, uncertainty, and agony for an even longer period of time is crueler than quickly ending the

pain.
Compare/Contrast
While outlawed in some states, capital punishment remains a common discipline granted to the most dangerous and violent criminals in the country. Upholders of the death penalty argue that the only way to undoubtedly ensure that innocent lives are safe is to eliminate the threat by killing them.