In Cold Blood Death Penalty
Cameron Geehr
December 3, 2012
The Prosecution of Smith and Hickock
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are gathered here today not to assess whether these men, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, are guilty of their crimes; they have confessed and there is overwhelming evidence against them. No, today we are here to determine how they will pay for taking the lives of four innocent people, the Clutter family. My role here is to argue that these men should pay for their crimes with their lives. This is not merely a matter of opinion; this is what should be done according to the law of the great state of Kansas. Using evidence that the criminals themselves have provided, I shall prove to you that these men deserve to get the death penalty as retribution for their sins.
I suppose I should begin my argument by going over the specific laws regarding the death penalty in Kansas. The death penalty is given as punishment for capital murder with 8 aggravating circumstances. The defendants are guilty of several of these aggravating circumstances, and I will go through each one using the evidence gathered.
Let’s start at the top of the list, shall we? “The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, or depraved (or involved torture).” You may be thinking that this does not apply to them, because as you heard in his testimony, Mr. Smith told us that he “didn’t feel that [he] ought to ask [Mr. Clutter] to stretch out on the cold floor, so [he] dragged the mattress box over, flattened it, and told him to lie down” (241). Indeed, this does show sympathy and caring on the part of Mr. Smith because he wanted Mr. Clutter to be comfortable. In addition, “as [Perry] was leaving [the room], [Mr. Clutter] had a coughing fit, so [Perry] stuffed a pillow under his head,” further demonstrating care for the late Mr. Clutter (242). However, these two acts of kindness do not change the fact that the murders were psychologically cruel in the cases of Nancy, Bonnie, and Kenyon, and
December 3, 2012
The Prosecution of Smith and Hickock
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are gathered here today not to assess whether these men, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, are guilty of their crimes; they have confessed and there is overwhelming evidence against them. No, today we are here to determine how they will pay for taking the lives of four innocent people, the Clutter family. My role here is to argue that these men should pay for their crimes with their lives. This is not merely a matter of opinion; this is what should be done according to the law of the great state of Kansas. Using evidence that the criminals themselves have provided, I shall prove to you that these men deserve to get the death penalty as retribution for their sins.
I suppose I should begin my argument by going over the specific laws regarding the death penalty in Kansas. The death penalty is given as punishment for capital murder with 8 aggravating circumstances. The defendants are guilty of several of these aggravating circumstances, and I will go through each one using the evidence gathered.
Let’s start at the top of the list, shall we? “The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, or depraved (or involved torture).” You may be thinking that this does not apply to them, because as you heard in his testimony, Mr. Smith told us that he “didn’t feel that [he] ought to ask [Mr. Clutter] to stretch out on the cold floor, so [he] dragged the mattress box over, flattened it, and told him to lie down” (241). Indeed, this does show sympathy and caring on the part of Mr. Smith because he wanted Mr. Clutter to be comfortable. In addition, “as [Perry] was leaving [the room], [Mr. Clutter] had a coughing fit, so [Perry] stuffed a pillow under his head,” further demonstrating care for the late Mr. Clutter (242). However, these two acts of kindness do not change the fact that the murders were psychologically cruel in the cases of Nancy, Bonnie, and Kenyon, and