I've decided to do my research paper on the death penalty, specifically in the United States and how it has evolved throughout history. My research question is why should the death penalty be completely abolished? I am interested in the death penalty because I only knew a limited amount about how it works or why it is still being used, so I want to expand my knowledge on this topic. I have always been interested in criminal justice and I wanted to learn more about this concept. This topic reflects my personal values because I don't believe that it should be allowed. I think that we, as the people of the United States, aren't allowed to dictate who dies and who lives. I don't believe it is anyone's decision to make about who dies as a punishment. This obviously makes me biased but I am interested in learning about both of the sides. I don't have any personal connections to this topic other than what I believe is right and wrong. I will make myself a credible author by doing lots of research about this topic and knowing as much as I can about both sides. I will learn about the background so I can have all the information I need to make a valid argument and well informed paper. 

My first article is The High Cost of the Death Penalty and was published in the Sacramento Bee on deathpenalty.org. In summary, it is about how expensive the death penalty is. I don't think a lot of people even know about the cost of lethal injection. It is so expensive because the process to go through with the lethal injection is so long to ensure that the person isn't innocent. It cost less to just keep him/her in jail for the remainder of their life. For this piece in particular the author is speaking to those who are uneducated about the cost of the death penalty. He uses facts, statistics and real life examples to show how it is a much better idea to keep the prisoner in jail for life. This source is very credible because it was published in a highly accredited newspaper and is on a website strictly for news articles. It contains references about statistics that have citations so the reader knows the information they are using is reputable. 

For my second source, I used an article from commondreams.org called Kill the Death Penalty: 10 Arguments Against Capital Punishment. This article basically just names all the top reasons why we the United States should make the death penalty illegal. It also talks about why other countries have made it illegal. Some of these reasons include barbarism, the cost (again), civilization, innocence and humanity. I think the author intended for those who aren't fully against the death penalty to be reading this article. He addresses the basic points and also makes some points that aren't as obvious. The author affirms a lot of things that the reader probably already believed and backs it up with evidence. The author, Dan Brooks, is credible because his article was published in an online newspaper that contains articles about all kinds of topics. He is an instructor of sociology and political science so he has a background in related areas of study, 

The last article I chose was the Death Penalty Database: The United States, and this article is strictly about the death penalty in the US only. This article has everything that someone interested in how the death penalty works in the United States would need to know. It talks about methods of the death penalty, which states are using which methods, yearly statistics of the death penalty, and what types of crimes are punishable by the death penalty. The author, or authors, probably wrote this just to inform the readers. It isn't biased and has general information that anyone on either side would need to know. With this article, the reader can use the information provided and decide for him or herself which side they agree with. It is a very credible source and is separated into sections depending on the subject of death penalty. Under each section is a list of all the sources used in that section. This is helpful in keeping everything organized and to give the reader the resources right there if they want to reference something within that subject. 

My research question, why should the death penalty be abolished, is arguable because half of the population agrees and the other half doesn't. There are still people who think that we should have the death penalty and use it in the cases that allow it. It is arguable because it's a serious way of going about the law and those who agree with it are polar opposites with those who don't agree with it. Each of my sources talk about how expensive it is to go through with lethal injection and how inhumane it is to have the government decide if someone lives or dies. Having sources agree with each other is important because it gives it a sense of validity; that the point they're making is a good one. Looking at different sides of one topic makes the reader see all of the possibilities that this one topic has. Once you look at everything and you have all the information you can make an educated decision for yourself about which side you stand on. My question is very broad and depending on what I find, I may need to make my research question more specific. 
