Directions: Read the article “Executions Should Be Televised” by Zachary Shemtob and David Lat: Executions Should Be Televised Article.pdf Actions Part One (10pts): Due Friday, November 12th by 11:59pm Answer the following questions about the article (A-E) in at least 300 words (not including the questions): A. What is Shemtob and Lat’s claim? What is their opinion? B. In your view, what is the strongest argument the authors give on behalf of their proposal/claim? What is the weakest? Explain your thoughts. Provide some examples. C. Why is Andrew Grant De Young important in the article? D. In paragraphs 9-13 Shemtob and Lat discuss opposing viewpoints to their claim. (These are arguments of people that disagree with their opinion.) They also refute the opposing viewpoints (this means that they argue against the opposing viewpoint in order to support their claim and make the opposing viewpoint look weak). Examples below: Opposing viewpoint (para 10): “Of greater concern is the possibility that broadcasting executions could have a numbing effect. Douglas A. Berman, a law professor, fears that people might come to equate human executions with putting pets to sleep.” Refute: “Yet this seems overstated. While public indifference might result over time, the initial broadcasts would undoubtedly get attention and stir debate.” Opposing viewpoint (para 11): “Still others say that broadcasting an execution would offer an unbalanced picture-making the condemned seem helpless and sympathetic, while keeping the victims of the crime out of the picture.” Refute: “But this is beside the point: the defendant is being executed precisely because a jury found that his crimes were so heinous that he deserved to die.” Opposing viewpoint (para 12): “Ultimately the main opposition to our idea seems to flow from an unthinking disgust–a sense that public executions are archaic, noxious, even barbarous. Albert Camus related in his essay ‘Reflections on the Guillotine’ that viewing executions turned him against capital punishment.” Refute (para 13): “This is not our view. We leave open the possibility that making executions public could strengthen support for them; undecided viewers might find them less disturbing than anticipated.” Are you satisfied with their responses to these opposing viewpoints, or do you think the authors do not satisfactorily refute the objections? E. In paragraph 4 the authors say that “the people should have the right to see what is being done in their name and with their tax dollars.” But while we are on the subject of rights, might the person who is being executed also have a right to die in privacy? Articulate your view.
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