Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1102, Discussing Capital Punishment.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1102.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Download a learning guide for this episode that will give you a complete transcript of everything we say.
On this episode we're going to talk about capital punishment, when the government kills someone for committing a crime.
Sounds happy.
Let's get started.
What's all that?
It's a news report about the upcoming execution of Perry Hickok.
That's barbaric.
We shouldn't have capital punishment in this day and age.
This guy killed an entire family while trying to rob them in their own home.
He was convicted of multiple murders and given the death penalty.
This is about justice.
This is about vengeance.
He could have been given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
As it is, he has spent 22 years on death row.
Oh, I see.
You're one of those people who is soft on crime.
You think our criminals should be coddled.
No, I don't.
But aside from my moral objections, executing someone with a lethal injection or the electric chair is inhumane.
Many executions are botched each year.
So what?
These are people convicted of serious crimes.
They deserve all the punishment they get.
I'm going to have to start calling you Hang'em High Hillary.
And I'll have to start calling you Soft-Hearted Simon.
Our dialogue begins with Simon asking Hillary, what's all that?
Hillary says, it's a news report about the upcoming execution of Perry Hickok.
It appears that Hillary is reading the newspaper about about an upcoming execution.
Upcoming means in the near future or simply in the future.
An execution, E-X-E-C-U-T-I-O-N, is when someone is killed, especially as a punishment for a crime that he or she has committed or done.
Simon says, that's barbaric, referring to the execution, of course.
Barbaric, B-A-R-B-A-R-I-C, means not civilized, extremely cruel.
Simon says, we shouldn't have capital punishment in this day and age. capital c-a-p-i-t-a-l punishment is the act of killing someone by a government usually because a person has committed a crime this day and age simply means nowadays in the current time hillary Hillary is saying that the man who is going to be executed killed an entire family.
That means everyone in the family.
While trying to rob them, to rob, R-O-B someone, is to steal things from him or her.
Hillary continues, This is about justice.
To be convicted, C-O-N-V-I-C-T-E-D, means to be found guilty, usually by a judge and or a jury, a group of people who decide if you are guilty or not of a crime.
This person, according to Hillary, was convicted of multiple, meaning many, murders and and given the death penalty.
The death penalty is the same as capital punishment.
It is killing someone for committing a crime.
The government, of course, killing someone.
Hillary says this is about justice, J-U-S-T-I-C-E.
How do we define justice?
Well Socrates, Plato and other great philosophers have spent a lot of time trying to answer that question.
But here it really means something that is fair, something that is considered right or correct, something that is morally or ethically correct.
Nowadays, it is often associated with the law or law enforcement.
We have, for example, a Department of Justice in the United States that is responsible for legal issues at a national level for our government.
Simon disagrees with Hillary.
He says, this is not about justice, this is about vengeance, he says.
Vengeance, V-E-N-G-E-A-N-C-E, is revenge.
When someone does something bad to you and you do something bad to that person, that is vengeance, a kind of revenge.
We might also say informally getting back at someone.
Simon continues, he meaning Perry Hickok.
The killer could have been given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
A life sentence is.
The word sentence here does not refer to a subject and a verb, but rather the punishment that you get from the government for committing a crime.
A life sentence is when you are sent to prison for the rest of your life.
Now, even if you are given a life sentence for doing something terrible, committing some horrible crime, it is often possible to be released from prison before you die.
You can also get something called parole, P-A-R-O-L-E.
Parole is when a prisoner leaves prison, either before or after his sentence is completed.
So if you are given a life sentence, You may, if you act appropriately in prison and don't cause any more problems, be given at some point parole.
Now, why do we have life sentences without parole?
Because some people think that certain prisoners should never be released from prison.
And so these people are given life sentences without parole, meaning there is no possibility for them to be released from prison in the future, other than when they die and are sent out in a coffin.
A coffin C-O-F-F-I-N is a box that we put a dead body in.
When we are going to bury the body, put the body in the ground.
Anyway, back to our story.
Simon is saying that, instead of killing this person, they could have given him a life sentence without parole.
As it is, Simon says, meaning instead, he has spent 22 years on death row.
Death row, R-O-W, is a part of a prison where people who are awaiting to be executed are kept.
The idea is that they are kept in a different part of the prison.
Now, I don't want to go into the whole topic of capital punishment here in the United States.
I do want to say, however, that capital punishment is legal in some states, but not others.
So of the 50 United States, some of the states have capital punishment, states such as, I
But many states, including California, do not have capital punishment.
Instead of killing the person, they get a life sentence without parole.
Death row then, would be a part of a prison where people who are awaiting to be executed are living or are kept.
Hillary responds to Simon, Oh, I see.
You're one of those people who are soft on crime.
If you are soft S-O-F-T on crime, you don't believe in punishing a criminal with a long sentence.
You may believe in punishing criminals, but not as much as other people do.
It's a relative term.
To say someone is soft on crime isn't really a very meaningful criticism, because it just depends on what your definition of soft is.
For some people, being soft on crime might be giving a prisoner 10 years in prison for a certain crime.
For other people, it may be giving them 20 years.
It just depends on the kind of punishment we're talking about.
Hillary says, you think our criminals should be coddled, C-O-D-D-L-E-D.
To coddle someone is to treat them in a very gentle way, almost as you might treat a young child.
Simon says, no, I don't.
But aside from my moral objections, executing someone with a lethal injection or the electric chair is inhumane.
Simon has moral objections to capital punishment, meaning he doesn't believe capital punishment is ethical.
It goes against his sense of right and wrong.
Lethal L-E-T-H-A-L means deadly, something that will kill you.
An injection.
I-N-J-E-C-T-I-O-N is when you or someone else, such as a nurse or a doctor, puts a needle in your body and puts some sort of liquid inside your body.
A lethal injection would be an injection that kills you.
And that's one way that some places carry out capital punishment.
Another way is the use of something called the electric chair.
An electric chair is a chair in which a person is placed and certain wires are attached to the person's body and you turn on the electricity and that's how you kill the person.
Simon says that both of these methods of capital punishment are inhumane.
I-N-H-U-M-A-N-E.
Inhumane means cruel, causing unnecessary pain and suffering.
Simon says many executions are botched each year.
To botch, B-O-T-C-H.
Something means to do something wrong, to do it in such a way that it doesn't work or it isn't done properly.
In this case, if an execution is botched, the person doesn't actually die or doesn't die as quickly as you had planned.
Simon says, I'm going to have to start calling you Hang'em High Hillary.
Hang'em High is an old phrase used to describe someone who is enthusiastic about killing someone by hanging them.
To hang someone is to kill them by putting a rope around their neck and and letting them hang in the air.
By calling Hillary, hang them high.
Hillary Simon is criticizing her, saying that she's too enthusiastic for capital punishment.
Hillary says, and I'll have to start calling you soft-hearted Simon.
Someone who is soft-hearted is someone who doesn't want to punish other people or hurt other people.
Once again, Hillary is using this as an insult, saying that perhaps Simon is too nice to criminals.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What's all that?
It's a news report about the upcoming execution of Perry Hickok.
That's barbaric.
We shouldn't have capital punishment in this day and age.
This guy killed an entire family while trying to rob them in their own home.
He was convicted of multiple murders and given the death penalty.
This is about justice.
This is about vengeance.
He could have been given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
As it is, he has spent 22 years on death row.
Oh, I see.
You're one of those people who is soft on crime.
You think our criminals should be coddled.
No, I don't.
But aside from my moral objections, executing someone with a lethal injection or the electric chair is inhumane.
Many executions are botched each year.
So what?
These are people convicted of serious crimes.
They deserve all the punishment they get.
I'm going to have to start calling you Hang'em High Hillary.
And I'll have to start calling you Soft-Hearted Simon.
The script writing is never botched here at ESL Podcast, thanks to our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
