Death And Justice By Edward I. Koch

Many notes were written in the margins of my textbook as I read through the writing “Death and Justice” found on page 534 by Edward I. Koch. If the written note was not in agreement with the author then it was simply a personal opinion that went along with the writing. Edward I. Koch wrote about a topic that I normally would not have too much interest in reading. However, I found his writing to really catch my attention and the points he made while supporting the death penalty became quite simple to understand and agree with. While Koch argued his beliefs and understanding of the death penalty it was fun to read because he took several opinions of those who oppose the death penalty and turned it around to give a total different viewpoint. Koch made very much sense and made the debate of the death penalty very fair while arguing his personal opinion.

The author of “Death and Justice” began and ended with an example of murders given the death penalty. The man at the beginning had killed another but when he was about to lose his own life he told the enforcers that they were doing wrong. There are many arguments opposing the death penalty and one describes the penalty as inhumane because of the pain and agony. Ironically, when they created lethal injection so the murderer receives no pain, people were still not satisfied. Koch makes a very good comparison to the cure for cancer when defending the death penalty. A second opposing argument that caught my attention was that innocent people could be executed by mistake. Protecting all people should be more important and if we let killing one innocent person become a threat then everyone will lose the protection they need.

Overall, this writing makes very good points. I mentioned a couple, but there are many more opposing arguments that can be easily turned around. Edward does a great job in the writing to explain those. This writing also helps me support my original stance of supporting the death penalty.