Abortion

The pro choice NARAL website is a better website because it also agrees with the pro life website saying that we should try to lower the amount of abortions while still having the right to choose what you want to do with your unborn child.  The NARAL website gave better agruments because it talked about everything, not only why we should have the choice to choose if we want to have an abortion or not, but also how we can lower the amount of abortions by using birth control and taking sex education.  Personally I think that the Pro Choice side of the arguement is winning the debate over abortion.  I think that even though Pro Life takes more action, the Pro Choice side is more largely supported than the Pro Life side. 
As an 18 year old high school student, I support both of these arguments, I don't think that these unborn babies should be killed, but on the other hand I think that we should have the right to choose whether to have a baby or not.  I do think that the parent of the daughter should be notified and brought into discussion about the abortion, not telling the parent could destroy trust between the parent and the child.  But I do believe that the parent should have no say in whether or not the daughter recieves an abortion or not since it is the daughters body and it's her baby.
I don't think that the father of the child has to be notified in the event of an abortion.  There may be something that happend between the father and mother that could make the father angry at the mother.  The father should have no say in the decision because he is not carrying the baby around for nine months. 
I do support Illinois' choice of being pro choice.  I do agree that the parents should be notified if the child wants an abortion.  I feel that the laws in Illinois are fine and don't need to be changed.

Final Death Penalty Post

I believe that the abolishment of the death penalty was a very good idea.  I completly agree that there is something very wrong with the accuracy of accusations of death row inmates, if someone is on death row for 15 years and comes within 50 hours to being executed.  The article also says that we believe that Illinois has executed an innocent man, which would ruin our 30+ year streak of no innocent deaths.  I don't think that people should be killed for the murder of someone.  "People have a lot of lingering doubts about the possibility of a person being wrongly convicted.  They are willing to convict them, but when it comes to the death sentence, they want to be doubly sure of their guilt, even more than the system requires."  This quote may be true about how we never executed an innocent person, but we came very close back in 1999, I believe that even though they want to make sure the person charged with the crime is 100% guilty, this doesnt always happen, sometimes they send the wrong people to death row, for this reason we need to get rid of the death penalty.

Deadline

“Growing up black in this state, you know, you really didn’t have a chance when it came to a crime. You know, they say that justice is blind, but justice really isn’t blind.”  This quote is very true in some states.  Mostly in the south, there is a lot of racial discrimination, so people will blame things on black people just because they're black.  I think that when it comes to white people and captial punishment, they will not be given the death penalty as easily as a jury would give a black man the death penalty.  I also feel like jurys think that the murder of a white man is worse than the murder of a black man.  Jurys should understand that a murder is still a murder. Since people of color and people who have a low income get the death penalty the most, I think that jurys feel like they are less important than someone who is white or has a good income.  Jurys should be made where there are all different races of people, instead of just one race, by doing this bias will be taken out of the picture and ensure a fair jury.
“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”  This quote is directly from the 8th ammendment.  I believe that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, therefore imposing the death penalty upon somebody is unconstitutional.  I think that places in the south support the death penalty more because they take pride in their death penalty.  I was watching the show "The Awful Truth" and Michael Moore went to an execution in Texas and outside of the place where they're killed people were out partying and cheering and chanting "USA".  I think that southerners get a strange sense of pride from executions.
I don't believe that our justice system will ever be perfected.  There will always be people who are wrongfuly accused of a crime they didn't commit.  I think that every once in a while someone being wrongfully accused is acceptable, but as of now 1 in 7 people on death row are found innocent, I think that is just too bad of a ratio, and it needs to be improved somehow.  If I could talk to the victims family, I would say that the death of another man will not bring back your loved one and that this death will not bring any justice to you and your family.  I believe that the family of the victim shouldn't have any input on the punishment of the accused.   The partners of the Washington DC sniper and Oklahoma city bomber were minors so didn't recieve the death penalty.  I respond to Stephen Bright's quote by saying that I agree with him, something is wrong with our justice system, its good to know that we have concerned citizens in the USA to help out every once in a while.