Death Penalty Rewritten

Essay by tnemethCollege, Undergraduate November 2014

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What does one learn about in a first year composition class in Appalachian State University? After

reading from Dr Kimberly Gunter it is still unclear to this writer. Quotes fromthe end of this paper

signified the two ends of the spectrum when it comes to the Death penalty; "Fry 'Em All" and "The Bleeding Heart" (Gunter, 38). This paper written by Dr. Kimberly Gunter from Appalachian State University initially appears on the surface to be about how the class she has been teaching for the last 15 weeks has looked to understand the death penalty in their state and why they oppose it. In the end Gunter describes how she used a topic that she obviously has strong opinions and emotionswith and has her students learn to write about it. The Title of this paper "In Our Names": Rewriting the U.S. Death Penalty (32) suggests that maybe there were petitions put together for possible ratifications to the death penalty laws or at least a Billwritten and presented to the state legislators for consideration.

There is nothing in the paper suggesting any of that was accomplished.

Gunter takes the reader on a field trip with her class to a Maximum Security prison in North Carolina in a final research effort for a class project the students have been working on. Gunter uses analogies like the equating the air in the prison smelling like a "day of hog-killing" (32) in an attempt to disgust the reader from the beginning with the idea of death row.Gunter continues to describe low life prison guards and overly medicated innocent prisoners. Throwing in one liner comments from students whose life experience equates to growing up in privileged middle class families and having the opportunity to attendan established University like Appalachian State University. Gunter...