Xavier Mendez
Professor Collica
JUS110
September 12, 2011
Capital Punishment and the Media
In today’s society, the capital punishment known as the death penalty has played a major role in the criminal justice system. It has brought important debates to the national attention in every aspect to whether end the lives of criminals. With the intense media coverage, it raised high standards on disputes on high profile cases such as serial killers. The attention given by the media towards capital punishment attracts the public own opinions. As a result, they’re views of the media and society allows them to form important issues of impact on the debate of the capital punishment
The majority of executions draw a great deal of media interest. The media 's approach towards the capital punishment has varied widely upon the criminal depending on the type of crime and method of execution. During the 1980s and 1990s, the cases were on top of the news headlines were serial killers such as Ted Bundy, John Gacy, Richard Ramirez, and Aileen Wuornos, (Goldman, 2002, p. 15). Those cases usually impacted the feelings and perspectives of the public opinion during the cases of the capital punishment. They have attracted pros and cons of capital punishment protesters on both sides of the issue in large numbers. However, these seem to have decreased down to just a few in most cases.
History of Capital Punishment and the Media
More than about three centuries ago, there was no media. Newspapers normally began to start in England around 1725 and were quite luxurious (Goldman 4). During that time period, only a few people could actually read. The public executions were very important to show that justice had been done and provide prevention to others. In most circumstances, executions used to take place in the large crowds in the community to arouse the public interest (Kudlac, 2007, p. 4). The purpose of executing
References: Goldman, Raphael. (2002). Capital Punishment. Chih Lin, Ann editor. Washington, D.C: CQ Press. Kudlac, Christopher S. (2007). Public Executions: The Death Penalty and the Media. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Von Drehle, Dave. (2006). Among the Lowest of the Dead: The Culture of Capital Punishment. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.