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Talk:US passes 1000 executions in 30 years

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Latest comment: 14 years ago by Brian McNeil in topic Request

NPOV issues

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Latest comment: 18 years ago5 comments4 people in discussion

I've tagged this article NPOV mostly for the section "Debate over capital punishment", which is in severe need of a cleanup. The preceding section is also in need, however it can mostly be fixed with minor edits (which I will perform). A comparison of "support" to "oppose" quotes in the section shows a very bad job of balancing opinions and presenting them in this article:


Oppose death penalty
Quote
"We consider this punishment cruel and inhuman. It does not act as a deterrent and any miscarriage of justice - which is inevitable in any legal system - is irreversible."
Quote
"This is one small step for humankind - backwards," said veteran American campaigner Clive Stafford Smith in an interview with Reuters. "The death penalty makes us all far more barbaric. I have watched a lot of people die, and when you come out from watching someone being executed it certainly isn't a better world."
Quote
According to Kenyan National Human Rights Commission Chairman Maina Kiai, "[It is] a great pity that the US can keep on executing people [when much of the developed world had already ended the death penalty]."
"Also, the fact that in the US a lot of death sentences that are carried out invariably affect people of colour and poor people, it's an issue of great concern," Kiai said.
Quote
In Singapore, where a 25-year-old Australian was hanged just hours before Boyd's execution, Sinapan Samydorai, president of the think-tank Think Centre, said there was no justice without life. "The US is supposed to be a champion of human rights and democracy, yet they do not recognise the right to life," he said.
Quote
"It is a scandal that the death penalty still exists in a civilised country like the United States of America," said Petra Herrmann, chairwoman of the German group Alive e V.
Quote
In Japan, where the death penalty is widely supported, Akiko Takada of anti-capital punishment group Forum 90 said despite frequent use of the death penalty in the United States, "crime there shows no signs of diminishing, so ultimately the death of these people has no effect."
Quote
Only China, Iran and Vietnam had more executions in 2004 than the United States, according to rights group Amnesty International.

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Support of death penalty
Quote
"Tonight, justice has been served for Mr. Kenneth Boyd. What I would ask you to do is not forget the victims of this crime..." Page said. "Pray for them. Pray for them and their healing."

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  • The number of quotes, compared, show a great deal of unbalanced text, and therefore needs to be cleaned up to conform to NPOV standards.
Statements/Quotes that need to be cleaned up
In addition, there are many statements on the opposed side that also need to be cleaned up:
Quote
In Singapore, where a 25-year-old Australian was hanged just hours before Boyd's execution, Sinapan Samydorai, president of the think-tank Think Centre, said there was no justice without life. "The US is supposed to be a champion of human rights and democracy, yet they do not recognise the right to life," he said.
  • Think-tanks should not be quoted in this article, which is severely lacking in a balance.
Quote
"It is a scandal that the death penalty still exists in a civilised country like the United States of America," said Petra Herrmann, chairwoman of the German group Alive e V.
  • Think-tanks should not be quoted in this article, which is severely lacking in a balance.
Quote
In Japan, where the death penalty is widely supported, Akiko Takada of anti-capital punishment group Forum 90 said despite frequent use of the death penalty in the United States, "crime there shows no signs of diminishing, so ultimately the death of these people has no effect."
  • Think-tanks should not be quoted in this article, which is severely lacking in a balance.
Quote
Only China, Iran and Vietnam had more executions in 2004 than the United States, according to rights group Amnesty International.
  • Should be reworded to "According to Amnesty International, China, Iran and Vietnam had more executions than the United States", or similar. The use of "only" isn't NPOV.

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Please fix or comment on the above objections to the article. --MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 18:02, 3 December 2005 (UTC)Reply

You make some good points. Although I'd thought it was made clear by this introduction to the section: "The grim milestone has prompted global outcry from human rights advocates..." I then outlined major media reportage of the advocates' comments etc.

But hey, do whatever you like. Delete it for all I care. But it makes me angry to see such pedantic nuetrality. I clearly stated in the article that there was "global public outcry," then I said what that outcry was.

I'd been enjoying writing a story a day for Wikinews over the last few weeks. But this kind of bias-police uber-scrutiny makes me not want to contribute articles to Wikinews...

I also think others may have changed the text in the article as it seems to be editied since it was published yesterday. Was sure I had more pro-death penalty stuff. --elliot_k 08:28, 4 December 2005 (UTC)Reply

MrM, You need to get off your high horse on this one. The main body of the article is just fine as is, the bottom part is clearly a long list because there is an aweful lot of high power opposition the death-penalty all over the world; hence it being banned in most civilized places. I would suggest the following:

  1. Addition of links to the wikipedia articles on the capital punnishment and Human rights in the United Stated; thus partially reducing our debate to their past debates.
  2. Reformulation of the section as two seperate lists, one of pro-death penalty quotes, and open of anti-death penalty quote; thus alleviating much of the POV issue, as anti- quotes can nolonger hide pro- quotes.

Anyway, your just being a jerk to this poor guy. Nyarlathotep 22:44, 6 December 2005 (UTC)Reply

Okay, I didn't edit too much, but I changed some structural things, which should reduce POV issues. I've also fixed the AI sentence which started with "Only". MrM is wrong about "only" being POV; however, he is correct that starting a sentence with "Only" is POV. Its a suble diffrence, but an valid one. I don't view the article as POV now, but I think that it could be improved by expanding upon the death penalty support in Japan & Singapore. Nyarlathotep 22:57, 6 December 2005 (UTC)Reply

I think some NPOV issues remain, but overall the article does present two points of view: the government's point that the crime warranted the punishment, as well as a number of other opinions from the opposing point of view. Given the fact that criticism of the death penalty is pretty wide-spread, I think the article is good enough to be published even with some imbalance in the numbers of quotes used. -- IlyaHaykinson 23:13, 6 December 2005 (UTC)Reply

Request

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Latest comment: 14 years ago4 comments3 people in discussion

The map is to be replaced with this version. SkyBonTalk/Contributions 17:07, 19 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

  • Not done Please read the response I gave on my talk page. The image you propose placing on this article is not the one that was there at the date this article was published. I know, I could do that, but this way there's one more Commoner educated about "preserving a record of history as it was". --Brian McNeil / talk 17:30, 19 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
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