End the Death Penalty Annotated Bibliography

CHRISTOPHER DOMBRES

Okay, I understand that this will not be the funnest thing to read, but annotated bibliographies are very important to writing. Annotated bibliographies are summarizations of sources you want to use. These summaries include what the author is saying, important facts; annotated bibliographies helps organize how sources fit in with each other and helps make a thoughtful and all-puttogether essay. 

Bearman2007

Marris, Emma. "DNA Tests Put Death Penalty Under Fire." Nature 439.7073 (2006): 126-7. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2015.

This affirms and substantiates my claim that that the death penalty should be gotten rid of all together. The author argues that the death penalty is extremely unethical. He substantiates this by using examples of wrongly accused victims that were put to death because of lack of DNA testing and wrongful DNA testing. An interesting point that this author makes is that with today’s technology DNA can still get it wrong because of contamination or malice. This author argues that if we are to implement the death penalty, everyone tried has the right to have DNA tested for a second or a third time.






Buchen, Lizzie. "ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT." Nature 484.7394 (2012): 304-6. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2015.

This affirms that the death penalty should not be given the teenagers. The author uses neuroscience to determine that teenagers should not be hold full responsibility for actions they commit when they are teenagers because during teenage years their brain develops and they are like “A car with great acceleration and terrible breaks.” The author also states that teenagers should not be given life sentences because of this fact, because as teenagers mature they develop how to control emotions, urges, and if they are put away for life, society misses out on important individuals. This document sanctions who is eligible for the death penalty.

Will medics' qualms kill the death penalty? (2006). Nature, 441(7089), 8-9. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/441008a

This document affirms that the death penalty is unethical and current methods are outdated. The author states that the death penalty is a breach of the doctoral oath, “do no harm.” The author states that the death penalty is unethical because no research has been done to improve upon methods used in 30 years and that too many inmates either die fully conscious while the lethal injections kill them or too many are botched. Because of this the medical community does not support the practice of capital punishment and are taking steps to eradicate the practice altogether. This provides a good perspective from the medical community and helps substantiates the argument that the death penalty should be eradicated using facts and ethics.


Woolston, C. (2013). Death row incurs drug penalty. Nature, 502(7472), 417-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1458304326?accountid=12725

This document is a good perspective on world views of the death penalty. The document states that German pharmaceutical companies are circumventing death penalties by controlling where a certain anesthetic goes. The companies will only allow for the drug propofol to go to US hospitals and not US prisons. These actions is a good example of the european nations stance on anitdeath-penalty. This document builds upon the other documents because it provides world perspective and how other countries control what americans do.


Reardon, S. (2014). SMART ENOUGH TO DIE? Nature, 506(7488), 284-286. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1504540397?accountid=12725

This document argues who is eligible to die. This document builds upon the document about teenagers because while it take an anti-death penalty stance, it defines which individuals should not be killed. The author argues that if a person is found guilty for first-degree murder they are ineligible for the death penalty if they have mental disabilities. IQ testing has been used to put many prisoners to death, and there is no standards for IQ minimums and there is a lot of corruption. The author includes a powerful quote that emphasizes the ridiculousness of these methods stating that, "We cannot reduce the life of a human being to a single number."