The Most Valuable Resource

The resource I found to be the most valuable when doing my research about the Death penalty was the book by Barry Latzer, Death Penalty cases: Leading U.S. Supreme Court cases on Capital Punishment. In this book, there are 22 different death penalty cases explained. Latzer goes inside each case and give the reader the sense that they are right in the court room witnessing the court case. He gives details such as how long the trial took, what took place in the court room and a narrative of exactly what was said by the criminal and the other individuals present in the court room at the time of the case. Each case is clearly laid out in 10-20 pages and each has many opinions on the case not just the authors. Latzer also put where his original information came from and the exact court dates on each chapter's introduction making it easy for the reader to see where the information is from and go there to get the original article and court case if needed.
I was able to find this book through the interlibrary loan office here at the Park Library on campus. This particular book was interlibrary loaned from Michigan State University but this is a common book and could be found at many large universities and law schools.
I learned about a variety of different cases and was able to directly link the court case between Furman v. Georgia (1972) Cruel and Unusual as Applied back to my research and use it in my blog for this class. There was also another case that really intregued me when I was reading because it was a case entitled Murder Defendants Who Did Not Kill which was the case of Enmund v. Florida (1982) and Tison v. Arizonia (1987). In each of these cases the defendants were stating their side of the case but the courts were asking themselves "How blameworthy is the felony-murderer? Were their other aspects playing a role in the case? Did the individual truly deserve the death penalty?" This was something that really hit close with mean as I am someone who likes to look at the big picture before jumping to a conclusion and when I see someone placed on death row when little or no investigation is done it crushes myself and others to see that, that is how our criminal justice system is working today still in some states. They feel the death penalty is the best option and the most utilized option when it come to criminals such as murderers and rapists.