Should the United States be able to abolish the death penalty because of the 8th amendment? I am interested with this particular topic because I have always been fascinated with things concerning criminal justice and rulings in court cases. When I was younger my favorite television shows were always ones that involved court cases such as law and order and cops which is what began fueling my fascination and opinions concerning the death penalty and the rulings in court cases. What allows me to be a credible source for this topic is the previous research I have already constructed on this topic with debates and papers written in the past. I also have had to debate this topic from both sides so it allows me to see arguments from both viewpoints. I plan to research examples of botched executions and executions that have involved an innocent person to prove a point that the death penalty is immoral and inhumane. I also plan on using the 8th amendment to show that it can provide a solution to abolishing capital punishment in the United States because it should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

 The article "Death Penalty: Justice or Inhumane" is by Leigh Haugh who writes many article in the Guardian about this issue and show credibility by presenting both sides of the argument. Haugh's articles appear to have a liberal perspective for most so that could effect his values but, it is also noticeable that he wants to make sure both sides are presented and uses credible evidence to support his claims. The central claim Haugh is making is that Justice is not revenge and has no place in a civilized society. I also plan to use his examples of botched executions to show that lethal injection is not always painless and can be inhumane. The source as a whole is very credible and unbiased though because it presents both sides and even uses major figures such as Obama saying he thinks there are cases that sometimes do require the use of capital punishment.

A source that I discovered "Six Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty" is an argumentative piece that discussed reasons why the death penalty should be abolished. This article does not have a direct author correlating to the article and is from a website called no the death penalty so, it is obviously biased and does not show many viewpoints of the other side. However, it does provide great arguments to abolish the death penalty and credible reasoning behind the ideas. The article provides great points supporting his viewpoint and also goes into greater detail describing his points. This source provides me with reasoning on why the death penalty is inhumane but also provides more information I can use on why the death penalty is wrong for our society. The major values that are focused on in this article is reasoning to ablolsih the death penalty because it is a website that is trying to get someone to join the campign to abolish capital punishment in the United States. 

In the article from the LA times about the Arizona criminal that took two hours to be killed by lethal injection. The author Matt Pearce, is a credible source because he is a national reporter for the Los Angeles Times who often writes about violence, disasters, social movements, and civil liberties. His central claim is all revolved around the example of the Arizona killer and provides great supporting evidence about how the botched execution should be considered inhumane. He notes how witnesses said that after an hour and 40 minutes the criminal was seen wheezing and gasping for air which caused the governor of the state to go into farther investigation. The values the author had in mind while writing this article was how lethal injection is not always painless and that there really is not a humane way to execute someone, which I think will be great to use in my final paper as supporting evidence.

Should the United States be able to abolish the death penalty because of the 8th amendment? This is a topic is always be up for debate in our country. Arguments are that the killers don't deserve a painless death if their victims suffered pain before their death. The other side to this argument is that even lethal injection is not painless, making people question whether capital punishment is inhumane. To make my paper not exceed 10 pages I should focus on the cruel and unusual punishment debate and not primarily why the United States should abolish the death penalty. 

