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Brittany N. Foster
UWRT 1102-030
Professor Voltz
December 3, 2014
EIP Proposal
I chose to do my EIP on the death penalty because it is a topic that I am interested in
writing about and I would also like to know more about it. I haven't recently heard much about
the death penalty being administered on the news, so I wanted to research about it and see what
was the facts behind it was. I found a lot of information about the death penalty from the internet,
books, and articles whenever I researched and realized that I wanted to focus my paper on it. I do
not know much about the death penalty and how it is administered, so I want to research and find
more information about it. Before I started researching and trying to find useful information to
incorporate into my paper, I formulated ten questions that would direct the focus of my paper.
They are:
1. How many states is the death penalty legal in today?
2. What are the different ways that the death penalty is administered?
3. What is the ratio of African Americans to other races that receive the death penalty?
4. What were the first instances of the death penalty?
5. What crimes are punishable by the death penalty?
6. Is the death penalty administered federally or by states today?
7. Is the death penalty really an effective punishment for violent and capital crimes?
8. How many people in the United States have received the death penalty?

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9. What is the ratio of people who support the death penalty vs. the ones who oppose it?
10. What court cases have dealt with the constitutionality of the death penalty?
In formulating questions for my research paper, I tried to avoid opinion based questions
because I knew that it would be hard to find answers to them. I have found some of the answers
to my questions from credible autobiographies and sites that ended in .org, .gov, and .edu. I used
autobiographies as a credible source because they gave me firsthand knowledge of the death
penalty based on the authors experience. So far, I have learned that thirty-four states in the
United States still use the death penalty as means of punishment for capital offenses and heinous
crimes. In other words, more than half of the states in America still have the death penalty. This
is an important issue because the media hasnt informed us on the use of the death penalty being
administered but capital murderers need to be aware that this punishment is still effective today
although it hasnt recently been used.
Each day on the news I hear about someone dying from being killed by someone.
Murderers arent receiving fair punishments for their actions. Many of todays prisons are
improving. Prisons are becoming more of a reward than a punishment which is unfair to the
deceased individuals and their loved ones. While an innocent individual has lost their life, their
killers arent being fairly punished. I have an uncle who has been in and out of prison all his life
and he told me that the only bad thing about prison is that you are away from your family.
Likewise, they get to engage in similar activities as they would if they were home, but they have
a few restrictions and rules to abide by. I think that this is an unfair punishment.
I want my paper to focus on what crimes people receive the death penalty for, the
constitutionality of the death penalty, how it varies from state to state, and the effects that it has
on the suspects and their loved ones vs. the victims and their loved ones. This focus will help me

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narrow my paper to specific points about the death penalty, and I can avoid having too much
information. Whether people are aware or not, murderers have a big effect on the overall
population. When people are killed their loved ones mourn, society is afraid and doesnt feel
safe, your close ones lose trust in you, and the overall population loses another innocent life.
Although the victim and the victim's loved ones cannot be restored to the status which preceded
the murder, at least an execution brings closure to the murderer's crime and the victim's family
and ensures that the murderer wont create any more harm. For the most cruel and heinous
crimes, the ones for which the death penalty is applied, offenders deserve the worst punishment
under the system of the law which is the death penalty. Any lesser punishment would weaken the
value society places on protecting lives. When someone takes a life, the balance of justice is
disturbed. Taking of the murderer's life restores the balance and allows society to show belief
that murder is an intolerable crime which will be punished in kind. Both as a deterrent and as a
form of permanent incarceration, the death penalty helps to prevent future crimes.