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Mencken Making Prisoners

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Mencken closes his essay by arguing that making prisoners wait for their death is brutal. To illustrate the suffering prisoners go through Mencken asks a rhetorical question: “Why torture him as not even cannibals would torture their victims?” (Mencken 2). Mencken clarifies that victims of cannibals would not be forced to wait as long as prisoners on death row for the end, because cannibals get the murder done right away. He addresses the amount of suffering the prisoners go through waiting is more than any victim could endure. Mencken validates the brutality of making prisoners wait is the cruel part of the death penalty. Mencken not only addresses the suffering of the prisoners waiting for the end, but also he criticizes the justice system

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