The Death Penalty

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Unit 21

• The Death Penalty

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Learning outcomes of the Unit 21

• Students will be able to
• describe the situation concerning death penalty
  in the USA
• explain the development in the UK concerning
  death penalty
• name the main points from the speech of Lord
  Kennet and elaborate on them
• translate key expressions related to the topic
• name institutions and documents in Europe that
  support the abolition of death penalty
• quote the provisions of the Croatian Constitution
  related to capital punishment

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INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSIONWhose memoir is the
following citation from?

• In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father,"
  __________ wrote that while the death penalty
  "does little to deter crime," he supports capital
  punishment in cases "so heinous, so beyond the
  pale, that the community is justified in
  expressing the full measure of its outrage by
  meeting out the ultimate punishment."

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• Asked about today's US Supreme Court ruling that
  sentencing someone to death for raping a child is
  unconstitutional, Obama said he disagreed with
  such a broad ban.
• "I have said repeatedly that I think that the
  death penalty should be applied in very narrow
  circumstances for the most egregious of crimes. I
  think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8
  years old, is a heinous crime," he said, adding
  that if a state determines the death penalty
  should apply in such cases, they should be
  allowed to impose it.

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• Obama has tried to toe a nuanced line on the
  death penalty, saying it should only be used in
  extreme cases.
• In the Illinois legislature, he pushed reforms to
  the state's capital punishment system to prevent
  innocent people from being executed. The reforms,
  after a series of exonerations through DNA and
  other evidence, included requiring police to
  videotape interrogations to prevent coerced
  confessions. Obama also opposed a bill to make it
  easier to sentence murderers involved in gang
  activity to get the death penalty.
• But he supported death sentences for particularly
  cruel murders of elderly people.

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• Geographical position of Illinois within the USA

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What a picture of the USA?
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Pair work

• Discuss with your neighbour the attitudes of the
  American President on death penalty and /or the
  death penalty status in the USA in 2001 (the map)
  and sum up your conclusions in 3 5 written
  sentences.

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Further research use the following
linkhttp//uspolitics.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi1/XJ
zTi1sdnuspoliticscdnnewsissuestm170gps33
0_234_788_360f00sup284.13.342.ip_tt15bt1b
ts1zuhttp3A//www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/CoC.pdf

• Have a look at the information from the following
  document

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Capital punishment in the UK

• The death penalty remained on the statute book
  until 1998
• Capital punishment abolished for murder in 1969
• in Great Britain (The Murder, Abolition of
  Death Penalty, Act in 1965 ? d.p. suspended in
  England, Wales and Scotland), unitil 1973 in
  Northern Ireland

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Situation in the UK 1969 - 1998

• Death penalty survived for other crimes
• Causing fire or explosion in a navel dodkyard,
  ship, warehouse (until 1971)
• Espionage (until 1981)
• Piracy with violence (until 1998)
• Treason (until 1998)
• Certain military ofences, e.g. mutiny (until
  1998)
• NO EXECUTIONS WERE CARRIED OUT IN THE UK FOR ANY
  OF THESE OFENNCES AFTER THE ABOLITION FOR DEATH
  PENALTY FOR MURDER

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From a speech in the House of Lordsby Lord
Kennet

• INTRODUCTION What ought to be done to
• a convicted
  murderer?
• THE MOTIVE FOR THE DISCUSSION
• We have to do something more with him than
  to punish him...

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• FIVE verbs suggestions
• Read the text, textbook, p. 97.
• Formulte the main idea L. Kennet presented
  for each of the five suggestions!
• To prevent
• To reform / rehabilitate
• To research
• To deter
• To avenge

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Expressions from the Unit 21

• to try / to convict a murderer
• to punish ? be punished
• the punishment for .... is
• what ought to be done to a convicted murderer..
• prevent somebody from doing something
• the prevention of crime / terrorism
• somebodys release at the end of a life sentence
• somebody is likely to do something
• the released murderer is no more likely to murder
  than anybody else
• the length of a sentence / of the service of a
  prisoner

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Expressions part II

• to help a person with something
• the lack of funds
• to achieve more / less
• to inflict punishment
• to conduct research into (causes/motives of
  crime...)
• to commit capital murder in cold blood on purpose
  
• during the prison sentence
• measures that would reduce the murder rate
• the capital penalty is not an effective
  deterrent...
• abolitionists of ? retentionist of the death
  penalty
• the state deals with / handles convicted criminals

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To be reprieved

• pomilovati pomilovanje
• to reprieve, v. /ripriv/
• A person waiting to be hanged for the murder has
  been reprieved.
• Reprieve, n. /ripriv/
• A man awaiting death by lethal injection has been
  saved by a last minute reprieve.

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Complete the following sentences.

• Use precautionary measures to keep something from
  happening means __ ___________ something.
• A sentence of imprisonment for the remaining
• portion of the convicts life is ________
  ________.
• __ _________ means to prevent from acting by
• fear to discourage.
• People who vote for the abolition of the death
  penalty are ______________.
• A sentence ordering a criminal to be executed is
  called
• _____________.

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KEY sentences.

• Use precautionary measures to keep something from
  happening means to prevent something.
• A sentence of imprisonment for the remaining
• portion of the convicts life is life
  sentence.
• To deter means to prevent from acting by
• fear to discourage.
• People who vote for the abolition of the death
  penalty are abolitionists.
• A sentence ordering a criminal to be executed is
  called
• death penalty.

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Have a look at the additional reading in your
book, p. 101 - 102

1. Which documents are mentioned?
2. What is the approacht to the death penalty in
   Europe? Explain.
3. What is the basis for Croatias approach to the
   death penalty question?