Each of you, presumably, holds a position (for or against) the Death Penalty. The assigned topic of the final paper is not to write about your particular view and why you hold it. Instead the focus of paper number four is to invite your reflection on the breadth of the semester we spent (and for one more week will spend) together and apply principles, laws, and perspectives we discussed to a single aspect of the death penalty in the United States of America. With the above in mind, here is the ‘prompt’:

apply, e.g., draw on and/or use examples, what we have discussed in class to defend or criticize the following fact about Law in Society: In the United States, with limited exception (i.e., qualifying violations of federal law), whether a person accused of aggravated murder faces the prospect of State killing/execution versus life in prison without the possibility of parole depends on lines on a map, to wit, internal geographical boundaries (i.e., state lines) involving where the murder(s) was/were committed. (See e.g., https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state).

Essentially, the issue/ prompt boils down to an invitation to reflect on the Constitution’s reservation to the States of certain police powers, using the Death Penalty as an example. [Remember, Federal powers are limited, with the balance delegated to the States. See e.g., Tenth Amendment]. The result is different States have different criminal laws. Age of Consent, Drug Laws and the Death Penalty are examples.

Our nation is large and there are reasonable arguments which may be brought to bear in favor of local control. On the other hand, delegation of Constitutional powers to states reveal striking contrasts in outcomes. What to make of exposure to the Death Penalty (for those facing aggravated murder charges, including considerations of race) as affected by lines on a map (State boundaries)? Paths students may choose include considerations of power, democracy, relative morality among regional groups, respect for local preferences, discriminatory effects, and/or even a counter-punch that the Death Penalty represents an outlier and thus an anomaly in the context of a discussion involving comparative merits of our nation’s largely decentralized model of criminal justice. Whatever your answer, I’m interested in your reasoning and analysis as it may draws on works we’ve covered. You are asked/ invited to take a position and justify it.

please use the power points to know what topics have been discussed in class

800 words