The Death Penalty

       I agree with the death penalty but as long as the punishment fits the crime. It is up to the jury to decide that. Most likely if a prisoner is being sentenced to death the crime was something bad for instance aggravated murder. Since that is usually the case then the debate is whether or not it is better to keep the murderer in jail or give him the death penalty. If we kept people in jail who deserved the death penalty but don’t get it we end up paying taxes to feed them and pay for the jail. The less taxes the better especially because of the current economy. Another argument is that who are we to decide when someone dies but that argument is a double-edged blade. Why does the person who murdered someone else be allowed to take that life without cause but the supreme court cannot. In my opinion it is only fair that we use the death penalty for extreme cases as long as we are cautious on how much it is given out and make sure that the suspect is absolutely, no question guilty. I believe that no one should be able to play god with someone else’s life so if the sentence is given it must be for extreme cases only.

12 Angry Men

                Each juror in the film is under a ton of pressure with several different causes to that pressure. For example in the beginning of the film when the jurors first decide on guilty or not guilty juror number 8, played by Henry Fonda, is under a lot of pressure by the rest of the jury because he is the only one who voted not guilty in a case where the evidence was stacked against him. Another example is juror number 1 who is played by Martin Balsam. His character is in charge of keeping the jury in order and running the entire ordeal. He is under constant pressure to try to keep the room full of 12 angry men inline, focused and altogether efficient which means making sure they keep their cool.  

                Many of the jurors are effected by their past and this impacts their views and ultimately their verdict in the case. For example juror number 3, played by Lee J. Cobb, had a troubled past with his son. He taught his son how to fight after watching him run from a fight. Soon after they had an argument and that was the last time he saw his son. This incident is what final gets him to breakdown and change his vote in the end of the film. Another character affected by their past is Ed Begley who plays juror number 10. This character is very racist and obviously has something against Latinos and this is shown in his outbreaks and shocking comments about the boy.

                I disagree with the statement: “it is better for nine guilty people to go free than one innocent person to go to prison.” If someone who has committed a murder is not found guilty then there is a good chance they will do it again. Prisons are meant to set their inmates straight and to keep them out of the public until they are ready to reintegrate.  If 9 men are found not guilty of murder and allowed back on the streets then that  9 murders who feel almost untouchable even by the government because they were set free. Let’s take the boy for example. If he did kill his father he already has a troubled past and several other minor offenses so he would not learn anything by simply appearing in court and then being set free. There is a very high chance he will strike again. 

360 dunkin'....

                Sals from Do the Right Thing and the Chief from In the Heat of the Night have somewhat similar racial views yet they do differ. Both Sal and the Chief get along with African Americans better than most other whites around them. For example Sal’s son hates being around African Americans but Sal himself do not mind. The Chief is in a similar situation where he himself does not mind black people but the deputies around him are racist towards them. The two are different because in the end of each movie they are on different sides. Chief in the end respects Virgil where in the end of Do the Right Thing Sal becomes begins to dislike them. Mookie fights racism in Do the Right Thing by fighting back with violence where Virgil fights back by being hardworking and making an example of himself showing that blacks can do anything just as well if not better than whites.

                There were multiple acts of racism in Do the Right Thing. There were multiple racial slurs thrown around including the scene where the entire scene was racist stereotypes and insults. Both of these films were accurate in there depiction of racism because in 1989 they where countless riots like the one that occurred in the movie and in 1967 there were successful African Americans and there were white people trying to kill them.

                A major question that comes up when watching the movie Do the Right Thing is if Mookie did the right thing. The answer depends a lot on your race. As an all white class most people thought that Mookie did not do the right thing. The main consensus was that he did not solve anything by doing what he did. My opinion was that it depends who is viewing the movie. Me as a white kid who say no he didn’t do the right thing by harming other white people. But if I were black I feel that my opinion would be opposite and I would say that he did do the right thing by standing up for his race and fighting racism and intolerance. When asked if Mookie did the right thing Spike Lee had this to say “No person of color has ever asked me that.” Lee is saying African Americans know the answer. Yes he did.