In 2003, a woman, Anne Rossi, whose husband, Barry Rossi, his business partner Robert Stears, and employee Lorne Stevens were brutally murdered. In 2007, a testimony was made by Anne Rossi to revise a new bill regarding the death penalty. She describes the horrific event, “All three of them were asked to lie on the dirty garage floor where they worked, they were asked to put their hands over their heads before they were all shot multiple times. All of them killed in a premeditated execution spurred by a murder-for-hire plot” (Evans). Anne Rossi’s plea, while heartbreaking, is not applicable to the majority of the American people. Most people also have not been in Anne’s position, and they haven’t experienced her grief and pain. …show more content…
In Evans’ article regarding Anne Rossi, she described her testimony for a new bill, one concerning the death penalty. Rossi herself had appeared in court regarding a murder, and she testifies about her experience, “What I 've seen is that the death penalty is a necessary and valuable tool for prosecution. It provides our prosecutors with a resource, a tool in prosecuting the types of cases that warrant it” (Evans). Without the use of this effective tool, justice might not be served, and the criminal could walk free. Anne Rossi went on to say, “I see them using the death penalty only in the most heinous of crimes. It frightens and concerns me that this tool would even be considered to be taken away” (Evans). From Anne Rossi’s encounter, the death penalty is only used on crimes that require it which she calls, “the most heinous of crimes” (Evans). These cases and crimes are so dreadful and monstrous, that the only way justice can be served is through the death penalty. In Anne Rossi’s perspective, she believes that, “We need to provide our prosecutors with the tools they need to perform their jobs to the best of their ability” (Evans). Anne Rossi restates the importance of the death penalty, and how it allows prosecutors to “perform their jobs to the best of their ability” (Evans). The word choice Anne Rossi uses, demonstrates a logical and persuasive …show more content…
Christof Heyns and Juan Mendez, stated their opinion on the death penalty, “Lethal injections violate the Eighth Amendment 's prohibition of ‘cruel and unusual punishments’” (Heyns and Mendez). In the bill of rights, the eighth amendment states that the government is restricted from having cruel and unusual punishments. A lethal injection is mixed chemicals, like potassium solution, and barbituric paralytic, that are shot into a person’s blood stream, supposedly giving them an ‘immediate death.’ However, not all cases have had that desired outcome. Most people have had heart attacks from these lethal injections, giving them a slow, and unpleasant death. Vicki Quade spoke out about capital punishment and claimed that, “Torture is intrinsic to the death penalty. And we can argue about how much torture there is to the electric chair, or gas chamber, or even lethal injections, about what people feel physically” (Quade). Capital punishment can be cruel to anyone, even though it’s intended to be a fast death, but since no one knows “what people feel physically,” they cannot assume it is not excruciating, cruel, or an unusal punishment, thus violating the eighth amendment