Ray Krone is an innocent man that was convicted of a murder that he did not commit. He was sentenced to death row but was luckily after ten years proven not guilty. In 2011 Ray Krone made a testimony to the Joint Committee on Judiciary in the Connecticut Congress. The testimony supported a senate bill that would repeal the death penalty and replace it with a life prison sentence. Hence, Ray Krone shares his story in order to encourage the congress to go through with this bill. In his testimony, Ray Krone uses all three rhetoric appeals: pathos, logos and ethos. His use of each of these appeals all contributed towards a strong argument. However, he was definitely most effective in his use of pathos. Ray Krone appealed to the audience's emotions to help his argument. He did not just rely on his credibility or facts, but instead gave his own personal story. In his testimony towards the CT Judiciary Committee, Ray Krone uses pathos throughout in order to appeal to the emotions of his audience; this is an effective strategy because since he is discussing a controversial topic by therefore appealing to emotion he humanizes the issue thus, having a stronger impact on the people of the committee. However, I think he could have made an even stronger argument, given his audience, the state congress, if he had incorporated more information that would enhance his logos because those he was addressing rely many times on data to make informed decisions.

Although pathos was most effective in Ray Krone's appeal it was also really important how he used ethos to establish himself as a good person. His use of ethos was essential because it made his overall argument much stronger by knowing that by no means he deserved to be in jail. Therefore, before anything else, Ray Krone establishes himself as an upstanding citizen and a good man. After introducing himself he goes right into saying, "I'm from a small agriculture town in southern Pennsylvania. I was in a church choir, was an acolyte, I played Little League baseball, Pee Wee football, did good in high school, graduated, enlisted for six years in the U.S. Air Force" (Krone). He uses all of these things about him to show that he a good person. All what he mentions are good uses of situated ethos. Particularly by mentioning his time in the Air Force because people who join the U.S. Armed Forces are normally regarded as good people who care about the good of their country and the people in it. Also, by saying he played in Little League baseball and Pee Wee football he is more relatable to the audience because it is typical for boys to participate in those sports. These particular attributes are especially relevant for his audience. As they are people who work for the government it can be assumed they have a lot of respect for those who volunteer their lives for their country. Also, mentioning his involvement with different activities as a kid makes him even more relatable. Elected officials normally participate and attend community events just like Pee Wee football. Perhaps, they even played Pee Wee football when they were a child. So by mentioning these specific traits of his he is able to demonstrate to the congress he is a typical good citizen. By establishing this to his audience Ray Krone significantly enhances his use of pathos. He is able to present himself as an upstanding citizen and relatable. Therefore, then when he describes his tragic story it is even more emotional. Knowing more about him shows that he did not deserve what happened to him. Establishing ethos, Ray Krone's appeal would not have been as strong of an emotional appeal.  Seeing he was a good citizen the audience must feel even more guilty that he was convicted of a murder he did not commit.

Ray Krone uses pathos to persuade the audience to feel sympathy and hence reflect on the usage of the death penalty. Normally, it is much more difficult to make an emotional appeal on such a controversial topic. Since either side is very ground to what they believe. Therefore, it is hard to convince the other side otherwise with just emotion. However, Ray Krone's first hand experiences are an exception. Despite what side of the death penalty his audience is on it is nearly impossible to disagree that what happened to him is unfair and could have been even worse. He demonstrates to the audience that he is a normal innocent man that could have been killed due to the death penalty. This definitely appeals to the audience's emotion because with the use of the death penalty there comes the risk of killing someone who did nothing wrong. For example, Ray Krone talks about himself and others who have also been wrongfully sentenced to death, stating, "We still had a chance at life, a chance to be released, a chance to be reunited with our family" (Krone). By not just speaking for himself but all of those who have been affected, his words a lot more powerful. The listener or reader is led into thinking about those innocent people and their families who could have been wrongly executed. Such a dramatic thought forces the audience to feel emotions, such as fear and sympathy, and reflect on the risks of the death penalty.

Ray Krone also uses pathos when describing his time in prison and on death row, in an effort to accomplish demonstrating that without the death penalty murderers would still have to face their consequences and even then some. He explains how prison is more difficult because on death row the people have accepted their death. This is important because he trying to convince his audience that it would be better to sentence murderers to prison rather than the death penalty. While in prison they must live with their guilt and their consequences for the rest of their life. This is a good use of the emotional appeal because people want to see murderers pay for what they have done. Ray's audience does not know what each punishment is like. Ray as someone who was faced with both punishments is able to give a detailed account and connect the audience to his own experiences, even if just vicariously. He says, "The ultimate punishment is sitting every day in prison knowing you're never going to get out. It's your fault. You deserved it" (Krone). His blunt description of the emotions of convicts makes a good emotional appeal. As his goal is to appeal to a committee on reform of the death penalty. His insight on the emotional effects of each punishment shows the committee that life in prison is the worst punishment. This is a good appeal in this situation because it is hard to convey why life in prison is a harsher sentence by statistics or data. 

While I believe the use of pathos is the strongest for Ray Krone's appeal I also believe that he should have enhanced his use of logos. Though he did use some logical appeals if he used more it would have strengthened his argument. His appeal to the audience's emotion portrayed the risks of having the death penalty. His personal accounts gave an insight on the struggles he faced. By providing more statistics on similar things happening to other people, Ray's argument would have been amplified. Perhaps if he went into more detail about the number of people who have already been exonerated. Doing so would show that there are actually a lot more of issues in the criminal justice system than typically realized. It would also be really effective to give the predictions on how many more people on death row are actually innocent. This would make his audience realize that Ray Krone's story is not all that rare. However, He does make good use of logos when describing the amount of time and money that went into his wrongful conviction for example, "But eventually, after 10 years, three months, and eight days, I was released to reunite with my family and my friends, start my life all over again at the age of 45 and wondering why did this happen?" (Krone). This specific description of how much time was taken from him puts the problem into perspective. By using pathos to show how rough his time was in prison and then using logos to demonstrate how long he was there, he makes a s strong appeal to the audience for the case to abolish the penalty. Perhaps, though, if he had followed up this statement and others with statistics of similar cases he could have made his argument for appealing for the audience. This is important with his audience because they are a group of people that legislate for the entire state. Therefore, I would assume they would want to make sure this was a broad issue and not just an isolated case.

All together Ray Krone makes a strong argument in his testimony. He demonstrates pathos, logos and ethos which all help his case. He uses ethos by demonstrating he is an upstanding citizen and never deserved what occurred to him. He also uses logos to give a more detailed account what happened to him and the issues of capital punishment. Lastly, he uses pathos by describing his personal stories in order to appeal to the audience's emotions. I think with all of these together he was definitely able to sway his audience into thinking perhaps the death penalty is not the right punishment. Since his testimony the state of Connecticut has banned the death penalty. Although this cannot be just contributed to Ray Krone's testimony he definitely had an impact. Perhaps, because I don't believe in the death penalty, Ray Krone should speak in more states that have yet to ban the death penalty. Also, if he does he could incorporate more logos to make his argument even stronger.  

