    The death penalty has always been a popular topic in politics. Both of my parents are incredibly interested in this topic and they have always had conflicting opinions. My father firmly supports capital punishment while my mother was always pro life. Personally, I have always sided with my father regarding this topic until recently simply because I do not believe rapists and murderers deserve to live. While prison is obviously a horrible punishment as well, vengeance seems to be a large part of human nature and death is the swiftest revenge in existence. However, capital punishment is not necessarily a swift process as prisoners tend to stay on death row for years before their executions, which is a waste of tax payer money and causes the victim's family to suffer more as a result. People simply enjoy the idea of death as a punishment, and they are blind to the fact that prison is an equally horrible consequence. I do not have any personal experience involving this topic; I simply sympathize with the families of murder and rape victims throughout America.

     The first article I discovered was written by legal analyst Phillip Holloway who works for CNN. This gives him a relatively large amount of credibility considering the fact that he has worked with many different prisoners including some that have been on death row. He states that he understands why people would want to keep the death penalty, then he explains in depth why this process simply has to be removed from the justice system. This article brings up several useful facts such as the fact that life without parole is far less expensive than capital punishment. He backs this claim up with facts and data. CNN is a major news network which tends to be a reliable source and this article is definitely useful. 

     The second article I read by Andrew Cohen strongly disagrees with the death penalty, and brings up some interesting points with a small focus on racism in the justice system. The author explains how an African American is more likely to obtain a death sentence especially if the victim is white. Cohen provides several important pieces of information from reliable sources to back up all of his claims. The article also makes a call to action to either alter the laws around the death penalty or abolish capital punishment entirely. 

     The final article I found by David Usborne brings up another interesting point which I had not considered about foreign nationals on death row. He provides information about the amount of foreign nationals waiting to be executed, and he discusses the number of states that currently utilize the death penalty. This article provides more information regarding the amount of African Americans being sentenced to death considering they only make up thirteen percent of the population.

      Some of the sources I discussed have different strategies for defending the same argument. Each source generally agrees that the death penalty needs to be abolished considering the amount of innocent people that tend to be accused and for moral reasons. Each article seems to have a unique main point which is defended and backed up with data. One article focused mainly on foreign nationals waiting to be executed in America while another discussed the racism involved with executions. Each article is incredibly similar and effective, but they use different angles to approach the same topic. 

     Out of all of the articles I read, the CNN one has the most credibility considering the fact that the author actually deals with legal issues on a regular basis. This article seemed to cover the majority of angles regarding this topic, such as the percentage of innocent people who go through the system, and the expenses involved with capital punishment compared to life without parole. After reading some of these articles, my opinion on the death penalty has completely changed simply for logical reasons rather than moral reasons. Capital punishment is far too expensive.  I still strongly believe that murderers, rapists, and pedophiles deserve to be executed; however, life without parole or isolation is also an acceptable punishment. Depending on the severity of the crime, there is always the possibility that this prisoner will be executed by the other inmates. Many people die in jail, and pedophiles and rapists tend to have a higher chance of meeting this end. I do not think I need to revise my research question simply because this question can be taken in either direction. 

