In 1985, fifteen-year-old Paula Cooper of Gary, Indiana and three of her friends began skipping school and participating in illegal activities. The teenagers needed video game money for entertainment and thought they had a good means of obtaining some. Ruth Pelke, a Bible teacher the girls knew, was seen as an easy target for the girls to victimize. The girls gained easy entry into the house by saying they wanted to take Bible lessons. Once in the house, Paula Cooper stabbed the 78-year-old Pelke thirty-three times with a twelve-inch butcher knife that she had brought along. Mrs. Pelke recited the Lords Prayer as she died while the girls left with thirty dollars to play video games (Guernsey 12.)The debate over capital punishment is fairly recent in comparison to history. Most ancient civilizations agreed that certain crimes should be punishable by death. Most of the civilizations that have existed endorsed the retaliation of the death penalty as well as the fact that some crimes were too heinous and dangerous to society to let the criminal go on living (Winters 15.) The death penalty and support for it remained as prevalent in the Middle Ages as any time in history. Most of the crimes punishable by death were religious crimes such as heresy, sacrilege, and atheism. The American colonies punished crimes like witchcraft, murder, and rape with the death penalty. The debates over capital punishment did not really begin until the Enlightenment of the 1700s (Winters 17.) During this period, people starting pushing for the restriction of the death penalty for many crimes. Through controversy and debate the death penalty has remained a tool of the criminal justice system and is still argued today. The case of Paula Cooper and thousands more like it are heard in courts every year (Guernsey 12.) Offenders such as these deserve the death penalty. The death penalty is an effective and fair means of punishment for four reasons: It ...
