Capital Punishment and John Grisham
Every society in history has wrought punishments upon those who have violated its lawsand/or codes of conduct. From Hammurabi’s “eye for an eye” to the some Middle Eastern countries’ practice of amputating the hands of thieves, many of these punishments involve violence and pain. Some governmental systems are willing to execute those convicted of the worst crimes. The United States of America is one of the countries which feels comfortable with killing its own citizens. The Chamber by John Grisham deals, in detail, with the subject of capital punishment. This novel forces its readers to seriously consider the consequences of the death penalty, especially in the broken, lumbering legal system existing today in the United States. The book discusses almost every possible argument against capital punishment. The character who is set to die . . .
There is also a question as to whether execution is giving a criminal the “easy way out. Another issue which brings the death penalty into question is the supposed Christian basis of the government. If one were to look up prison statistics, one would find that if a minority male and a caucasian male commit the same crime, the minority is more likely to recieve the death penalty, while the caucasian gets life in prison or an even lesser sentence. Another point of contention for those opposed to the death penalty is that inevitably, innocent people will die. Sam simply wanted to blow up an empty building to send his message of racial discrimination and oppression. A cornerstone of Christian dogma is forgiveness. If the judicial system was truly a Christian institution, it would let Sam go free with a clean slate. First, there is the issue of what to do with a person who has, in the past, done horrible things but is now harmless and deeply regretful of his/her actions. Capital punishment is a barbaric, arcane practice which has somehow managed to survive in an age of universal compassion and forgiveness. One issue not brought up in The Chamber is that the racial makeup of death row inmates does not match the racial makeup of the rest of society. ” Sam says he is happy that he will be executed and that if, by some outside chance, he got a last-minute stay of execution, he would rather kill himself than spend more time rotting alive in his tiny, hot cell. The crime for which Sam is on death row occurred more than 30 years before his execution. It is hard to believe that, in a society where so many advances in medical technology save lives daily, there is still a need to murder members out of childish revenge or for the so-called “deterrent factor.
Common topics in this essay:
Sam Cayhall, John Grisham, Middle Eastern, Capital Punishment, United America, capital punishment, death penalty, racial makeup, legal system, death row, | 
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