This article addresses the debate about the death penalty and its usefulness. The author uses rhetorical devices to help clarify the main message of the article. The first appeal that stood out to me was ethos. Robert Kiener established his credibility to his readers by including quotes from reknown politicians, such as Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. Using the thoughts of prominent figures helps the author to gain trust from his readers. People are more likely to put the time in to read an article that has information backed up by multiple intelligent sources. The author also uses logos to present his claim about the death penalty. He includes multiple types of statistics. A statistic that stood out to me was: 4.1% of the people on death row were falsely accused. This means that they were innocent but charged as guilty. The main argument is that the death penalty is slowly fading away. People sit on death-row for many years because of appeals. This ends up being very expensive. Another thing that is wrong with the death penalty is that there is no turning back after killing a criminal. They could find that this person is guilty after it is too late; that to me is a huge problem. Pathos is also brought up when the author mentions that recently, some criminals have been found to have mental problems. This makes the audience feel bad for those that are put on death row for doing something that their mind could not even comprehend they were doing.

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