Weekly post #17 (the missing one)

In Class Clemency Hearings Gone Wild.........

Over the past week in Issues in America the class was split up into teams, each team given a different death penalty case. Every member of the class would be asked to participate in mock clemency hearing for the inmate. Half of the class assigned representing their specific inmate and the other half representing the state. At the end of each hearing the class (aka clemency panel) is given the opportunity to vote life or death. This has really changed my perspective on the death penalty. Never before in a class have we been able to hear the inmates story from both sides. What really scares me is when the high school mock clemency panel votes a different outcome then the court did. "We are the future of american" states high school senior Bradley Martin; we are the next members of the jury, judges and lawyers.  The fact that a high school untrained mock lawyer can effect the outcome of a case by bringing in there perspective is truly amazing. There was one case where the in class panel voted for the inmate to live and that inmate was killed by leather injection 4 year ago. Through out the unit my views on being for or against the death penalty have changed. I am ready to take a stance, I think that no state should be aloud to execute a man or woman. Too much is being left up to humans who make mistakes. Life without parole is good enough for me. Before taking this class I would have never thought it would get me so inspired to showcase my views on these issues. I am very pleased with the hearings as well as the class overall.