Group members:

• Mateja

• Tina

• Petra

• Sara

• Mojca    

 

 

Distribution of roles:

Leader: Mateja

Secretary: Tina

Reporter: Petra

Time-keeper: Sara

Reserve person: Mojca

 

 

 

Title: Death penalty in Texas

     

 

No.1

 

Definition:

 

To define the problem of death penalty we decided to primarily focus on discussing whether or not death penalty really is a solution, weather it is effective as a means of punishment and if it in fact helps decrease the number of murders, etc. The fact is that the system (such as political system, economic system,…) has many weaknesses and there have been many cases known as wrongful executions where innocent people were accused and later sentenced to death. The morality of death penalty is also an important issue especially if we consider that even in this time in our society the death penalty can be executed in a very inhumane manner such as death by hanging or execution by firing squad. We all agreed to focus specifically on the state of Texas due to its highest execution rate in the US. Since 1982 there have been 435 death row inmates executed.

 

 

Research questions:

 

1.      Why is death penalty  disputed? (Mateja)

2.      Where are executions still carried out? (Mojca)

3.      How does the execution process work (in Texas)? (Sara)

4.      Why does Texas have such a high rate of execution? (Petra)

5.      Which are the reasons for and against death penalthy in Texas? (Tina)

6.      Does the death penalty in Texas decrease the crime rate? (Sara)

7.      What is the history of death penalty in Texas? (Mateja)

8.      What is the public opinion on death penalty in Texas? Why is that so? (Mojca)

9.      How to abolish death penalty in Texas (moratorium on death penalty)? (Petra)

10.  Which organisations are trying to abolish death penalty worldwide? (Tina)

 

 

 

List of literature:

 

1.      Amnesty International. Accesible on: http://www.amnesty.si/sl/ocp/pod-delov/smrtna-kazen (accesed on 5 March, 2009). 

2.      Amnesty International. 1989. When the state kills: The death penalty v. human rights: Amnesty International briefing. London : Amnesty International Publication. 

3. "Death Penalty Statistics." In Melissa S. Green, compiler (1998-2009), Focus on the Death Penalty (website). Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage. <http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/death/stats.html> (accessed on 10 March 2009).

4. Dewa, Suzana. 1991. Poročilo Amnesty International : 1991 : to poročilo pokriva obdobje od januarja do decembra 1990. Ljubljana : Skupina Amnesty International. 

5.     Močnik, Rastko.1987. Proti smrtni kazni. Problemi 25 (7/9), p. 130-135. 

6. The Death Penalty Information Center. 2009. Facts About the Death Penalty. Washington, The Death Penalty Information Center. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf (accessed 10 March 2009)

7.      Tsbelis, George. 1990. Penalty has no impact on crime. Rationality and society 2 (3) : 255-286. 

8.   Zlobec, Jaša L. 1989. Smrtna kazen : zbornik. Ljubljana, Cankarjeva založba.   

 

 

Glossary:

 

death row - čakalna vrsta za usmrtitev

abolition - odprava, ukinitev

moratorium - odlog

lethal injection - injekcija za usmrtitev

capital punishment - smrtna kazen

inmate - jetnik

penalty - kazen

death sentance - smrtna obsodba, smrtna kazen

aggravating circumstances - oteževalne okoliščine

mitigating circumstances - olajševalne okoliščine

retentionists - zagovorniki smrtne kazni 

gurney - medicinska postelja

catheter - neke vrste tuba, ki se jo ustavi v telo, da vanjo teče urin

to clog - zamašti se

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Minutes of the 1st group meeting

Held on 26 February, 2009 at FDV library    

 

Present: Mateja, Tina, Petra, Sara, Mojca  

Absent: /    

 

Agenda:   

1. Topic discussion and selection 
2. Defining problem 
3. Distribution of tasks
4. Other issues  

    

Item 1: 

Discussion: At our first meeting each of us proposed a topic. We talked about discrimination of homosexuals, death penalty, modern slavery and some other topics.

Decision: Considering the literature and our common interest we decided on the topic of death penalty. At our next meeting we will formour title in greater detail.     

 

Item 2: 

Discussion: We discussed the selected topic and we were thinking about questions that we would like to research. We made some starting points which may be relevant for our topic and could help us to define our problem.   

 

 

Item 3:

Assignments: Each of us has to find out appropriate literature about this topic and form some questions till our next meeting.  

    

Item 4: 

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 at FDV.    

 

Minutes taker: Tina

Chair: Mateja

 

 

 

Minutes of the 2nd group meeting

Held on 5 March, 2009 at FDV

 

Present: Mateja, Tina, Sara, Mojca 

Absent: Petra (ill)

 

Agenda: 

1. Action-item follow up

2. Discussing new definition

3. Forming questions

4. List of literature

5. Any other business

 

 

Item 1:

All assignments from the previous meeting have been carried out (searching for literature, preparing questions).

 

Item 2:

Discussion: Our definition was too broad therefore we discussed how to narrow it.

Decision: We decided to focus on public opinion on death penalty in Slovenia. For this purpose we will use surveys containing this topic.

  

Item 3:

Discussion: The questions regarding the literature were formed.

Decision: We decided to form general questions on death penalty. Further on we concentrated on the questions concerning Slovenia.

  

Item 4:

We searched relevant literature.

 

Item 5:  

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 12 March, 2009 at FDV.

 

Minutes taker: Sara

Chair: Mateja

 

 

 

Minutes of the 3rd group meeting

Held on 12 March, 2009 at FDV 

 

Present: Mateja, Tina, Petra, Sara, Mojca

Absent: /  

 

Agenda: 

1. Changing the problem

2. Distribution of tasks

3. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: After the consultations with Vida Zorko (on Tuesday, 10 March) we made some agreements.

Decision: We decided to create a new definition of our problem. We will focus on the death penalty in Texas (there are maximum executions per year.) We had also changed our definition and the questions and added more literature.  

 

Item 2:

Discussion: We discussed how the questions will be distributed between each member.

Decision: We decided that Mateja will answer the questions 1 and 7. Mojca will find answers to the questions 2 and 8. Sara will research the questions 3 and 6. Petra will be focused on the questions 4 and 9 and Tina will answer on the questions 5 and 10.

 

Item 3:

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 19 March, 2009 at FDV.

 

Minutes taker: Mateja

Chair: Mateja

 

 

 

Minutes of the 4th group meeting

Held on 19th March, 2009 at FDV

 

Present: Mateja, Tina, Mojca, Sara

Absent: Petra

 

 

Agenda:

 

1. Forming glossary

2. Any other bussiness

 

Item 1:

Discussion and decision: Mojca suggested to use some words from an Internet dictionary on death penalty. Others brought a list of their suggestions. Relevant words form literature and internet were selected and added to our glossary.

 

Item 2:

Decision: The decision was made to meet every Thursday to see our research progress and to discuss problems that may occur. Next meeting will be held on Thursday, 26th March, 2009 at FDV.

 

Minutes taker: Sara

Chair: Mateja

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sources:

No.1: Death penalty. http://images.google.si/images?hl=sl&rlz=1W1TSEA_en-GB&q=death+penalty:+pictures&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=yxutSejZMoaU0AWf4pXCBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title (accessed on 3 March, 2009)