Death Penalty Case Analysis

As humans on this earth, we are not capable of choosing the life we are given. The circumstances that we are born into shape who we become as adults. A child who is raised in a wealthy household with two loving parents is presumed to turn out as a productive member of society, while a fatherless child raised by a paranoid schizophrenic mother may not be so lucky. Chances are, those two children will grow up very differently and be exposed to different things throughout their lives. In a Ted Talk hosted by death penalty lawyer David R. Dow, “Lessons from death row inmates”, the educated lawyer speaks to the audience in Austin, Texas about the importance of devoting our attention to the “earlier chapters” of a potential murderer’s life so that …show more content…
A death penalty case passes through four chapters. Mr. Dow discusses the “make up” of a death penalty case to show how much time and effort goes into these cases that could be prevented. The first chapter is the murder of a human being, the murderer’s conviction, and sentencing to death row. The second chapter is a legal process known as a “state habeas corpus” appeal. The third chapter includes the process known as the “federal habeas corpus” appeal. Finally, the fourth chapter is what ultimately ends in the execution of the criminal (Dow 3:44). He goes on to say that 80% of the children that experienced a rough upbringing will see the juvenile court system. That is quite a large number. In Dow’s words, “80% of the people on death row are people who came from the same sort of dysfunctional family that Will did” (Dow 8:34). The reason Dow discusses the importance of the four chapters of a death penalty case is because he goes on to say there are 5 chapters of a criminal’s life that come before the 4 chapters of a death penalty case (Dow 11:03). Dow stated that these 5 chapters of a criminal’s life are all points of intervention (Dow 11:03). Two modes of intervention that Dow spoke about are early childhood care for economically disadvantaged and otherwise troubled children at no cost to the families, and providing schools specifically for these economically disadvantages children (Dow 12:41). Dow also spent time analyzing two graphs showing the number of executions per year in Texas and the number of death sentences per year from the years 1980-2010. The first graph proved his point that there has not been a sustained decline in the number of annual executions in Texas (Dow 5:34). The second graph showed that the state of Texas executes around 40 people per year and that number has not changed much in the past 15 years (Dow 5:34). This was impactful in Dow’s discussion because he goes on to