I've decided to do my research paper on the death penalty, specifically in the United States and how it has evolved throughout history. I am researching the question: why should the death penalty be completely abolished? For the past few year I have been interested in criminal justice and more specifically the death penalty but I only knew a limited amount about how it works or why it is still being used. I chose this topic because I want to expand my knowledge on this topic. 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 still interested in learning about both of the sides. Other than what I believe is right and wrong, I don't have any personal connections to this topic. In order to become a credible author, I will have to learn as much as I can about both sides of the topic and know the facts that will make my side stronger. 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. Lots of people don't know about the cost of capital punishment, and more specifically 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. The process takes years to complete which makes the expenses so high. Also the drugs that the prisons use for lethal injections are pretty expensive. 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 death penalty, but he focuses mainly on the cost. 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. This website is for death penalty articles and death penalty related things only, so it keeps the content relevant and accurate. 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 Forbes Magazine called "How Many Innocent People Are Sentenced to Death?" This article talks about the percent of innocent people who are sentenced to death. 4% of all death penalty cases are later found out to be mistaken and the person was innocent. Four percent doesn't seem to a lot, but that is a life that was taken for no reason what so ever. That was someone's mom, dad, brother, sister, daughter, or son who died for nothing. It talks about different statistics regarding how many executions take place, how many die to suicide, etc. Elizabeth Lopatto wrote this article and it is credible because she is a established writer for a high end magazine. She establishes credibility by using statistics and referencing other databases and facts. This article is valuable to me because a main point of mine is how death is so final and if someone is going to implement the most final of all punishments, they need to be 100% sure that this person did commit the crime so that this 4% of innocent people don't exist. But since they do, the death penalty just needs to be abolished completely. 

The last article I chose was the Death Penalty Database: The United States, and this article is about anything and everything related to the death penalty in The United States. 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. Since this is part of a database the article doesn't have just one author. Odds are there are multiple people working on this article to make sure it's accurate and complete. The author, or authors, probably wrote this 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 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. This article gains its credibility by using statistics and not being biased towards one side or the other. It talks about both sides and gives the reader an equal chance to decide which side they want to be on. 

My research question, why should the death penalty be abolished, is arguable because there is a good chunk of the population that believes in the death penalty. It is a very controversial topic that has a lot of factors that plays into it. There isn't really a middle ground for this either, it's either allow it or don't. I don't think some cases should have it implemented and some don't. It is arguable because it's a serious way of going about the law and if changed, would require a whole new regulation be implemented. 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. Most of the sources I've found either agree with the abolition of the death penalty or are 100% for it. 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. I realize that my question may seem broad, but there are multiple types of capital punishment and I am arguing that none of them should be in use anymore. I think my question has to be broad in order to get the point across. 
