THE DISCUSSION ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to Student B.)
(1) What is the difference between capital punishment and corporal punishment?
(2) Do you agree with capital punishment?
(3) What is the history of capital punishment in your country?
(4) What does the government do about people wrongly executed?
(5) Is the death penalty a deterrent to violent crime?
(6) What different methods are there of applying the death penalty?
(7) What do you think of the argument “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”?
(8) Do you think victims’ families get a sense of closure knowing a killer has been executed?
(9) Should the death penalty be applied to mentally disabled people?
(10) What do you think the executioner feels?
STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to Student A.)
(1) Do you think capital punishment is murder?
(2) Which is worse, life imprisonment or the death penalty?
(3) Why do many Christian countries have the death penalty when the Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill”?
(4) What do you think is the most humane way to put someone to death?
(5) Do you think the victim’s family should be able to choose the method of execution?
(6) If execution is unacceptable, what is the alternative?
(7) What does the “capital” mean in “capital punishment”?
(8) Should the general public be allowed to look at executions?
(9) In Britain, you can receive the death penalty for killing the Queen but not your neighbor. What do you think?
(10) Do you think the death penalty can be applied to thieves?
