Blog Reflection Quarter 4

Over this past year, I think I have evolved as a blogger. Fourth quarter, I have blogged about topics that relate to our class discussions and about my junior theme experience. Blogging has become not an assignment (as it started off as first quarter), but a way for me to think critically and reflect on our society and discussions we have in class, and stay updated on current events. I definitely feel more comfortable blogging now as opposed to first quarter.
My favorite blog post this quarter is "Facebook...for first graders" (5/21). Although I did not have as many blogs fourth quarter as previous quarters, I really liked this blog both because it pertains to the discussions we've had in class on the media and technological changes in our society, and because I actually felt very strongly about the topic. I think the idea of social networking for young children is very relevant and a little scary.
Overall, I have really enjoyed learning how to blog and become comfortable blogging :)

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Execution Fails

Romell Broom was convicted of an abduction/murder/rape in 1984. And, on Tuesday september 15, he was suppposed to be executed by lethal injection. However, this was the first time in the United States that an exectution by letah injection had failed, and then been rescheduled. For two hours, a team of technicians tried to find a vein to sucessfully inject the lethal drugs, and according to one of his lawyers, Adele Shanks, “He survived this execution attempt, and they really can’t do it again. It was cruel and unusual punishment.” She also said that he was wincing in pain throughout the procedure. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said that this is the third screwed up execution in three years, and many are wondering whether or not this is still an acceptable punishment to be used. Isn't the death penalty supposed to be humane? But putting someone through that kind of mental and physical pain twice does not seem constitutional or right to me. I personally think that he deserves a lifetime in jail for the crimes he committed, but definitely does not deserve to be "killed" again. Read Article
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2 comments:

  1. Sophie MSeptember 17, 2009 at 3:59 PM

    I agree with you and I think that Romell Broom shouldn't be "killed" again. Personally, I don't think he should be killed at all. I guess I understand that the death penalty is beneficial to the victim of a given crime. They are put at ease because the perpetrator of the crime against them can no longer hurt them. But I think this method is outdated and is not humane. The way I think about it, a person who commits a crime worthy of the death penalty should suffer for what they did. However, if this person is killed by the death penalty, they are put out of their misery. I'm not saying that this person should be released from jail, I just think that they should have to live in the shadow of what they did and understand that their actions were wrong. In jail. Killing them does not allow them to reflect on their mistake.

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  2. MMarinSeptember 19, 2009 at 1:39 AM

    Wow, that's not fun (well, of course not). Two hours of having needles fishing around in your arms and wherever else trying to find a vein. For me, just two minutes of that is awful. I think the idea of death penalty seems kind of relieving to some people. Someone does something completely terrible like murder/rape/kidnapping, so you just kill them. But if you think the physical act of doing it it gets kind of weird...

    Personally, I think the death penalty is a tad hypocritical. We're against killing, and we take the moral highground and kill them back? It kind of makes sense, but I also am sort of bothered by this. As shown by this article, it's very much more than just killing them instantly-- it can go horribly awry as in this case, and it physically needs to be acted out, which is completely obvious, of course, but also very different from the actual visualization of the death penalty, which may seem simpler as a concept. There are also flaws in the system with interrogation techniques, government corruption, and wrongful convictions. I also agree with Sophie that you don't give criminals time to reflect, which could be really important (although the importance of this could be debated).

    I watched this interesting movie about a prison program that had a group of convicts take a vow of silence for 10 days and spend their day closing off some of their conscious activities and analyzing their thoughts for the ten day period in a passive manner, to see the origins of their thoughts and emotions. Here's some info on it http://www.prison.dhamma.org/ The gist of it is that this self-analyzation broke down peoples' defensive barriers, like things they might tell themselves in order to rationalize what they did as being justified. Painful emotions associated with committing a crime, making it so that even people convicted for life or on death row may not spend time extensively breaking down what occurred without rationalization, and I think this is especially true for death row inmates, as the fact that they will be killed by the government might make them more likely to be defensive. I believe more in the idea of the promising of efficiently-assigned, significant punishment being more effective than the severity of punishment.

    Is there any importance in making people reflect on their actions?

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