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from Eye-for-an-Eye Incivility / Charles Blow

When President Obama was asked on Friday about the Oklahoma execution, he repeated his belief that capital punishment should be an option in some cases but pointed out:

The application of the death penalty in this country, we have seen significant problems — racial bias, uneven application of the death penalty, you know, situations in which there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to have been innocent because of exculpatory evidence. And all these, I think, do raise significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied. [. . .]

And not only are there application and misapplication issues, the death penalty is also a tremendous drain on resources.

Prof. Jeffrey A. Fagan of Columbia Law School has argued that “even in states where prosecutors infrequently seek the death penalty, the price of obtaining convictions and executions ranges from $2.5 million to $5 million per case (in current dollars), compared to less than $1 million for each killer sentenced to life without parole.”

Our continued use of the death penalty does not put us in good company. According to a 2014 report from Amnesty International, “only nine countries have continuously executed in each of the past five years — Bangladesh, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, U.S.A. and Yemen.” 

To support his first reason against the death penalty, which he sums up as “application and misapplication issues,” Blow begins by citing President Barack Obama, who was trained as a constitutional lawyer. Then Blow quotes a law school professor to present a second practical reason, which is the financial cost of execution versus life in prison. Then, Blow offers a third reason against the death penalty by naming the other countries that use capital punishment—most of which are not exemplary democracies. Although the death penalty is a very emotionally charged issue, in this section of his article Blow approaches it with calm authority—by appealing to reason.

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How does this Dilbert cartoon poke fun at the appeal to logos?
DILBERT © 2011 Scott Adams. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL UCLICK. All rights reserved.

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KEY QUESTION

When thinking about the appeal to logos, ask yourself:

  • How does the writer use evidence and logic to appeal to the audience’s intellect?