In “The Death Penalty” (1985), David Bruck argues that the death penalty is an injustice and that it is fury rather than justice that forces others to “demand that the murderers be punished”. "from death. Bruck relies on various cases of death row inmates to persuade readers against capital punishment. His aim is to persuade readers against the death penalty so that they realize that it is inhumane, irrational and that “neither justice nor does self-preservation require that we kill the men we have already imprisoned.” Bruck does not use a series of devices but employs some such as juxtaposition, rhetorical questions and appeals to strengthen his argument of capital punishment as Mayor Koch begins his essay by refuting all of Koch's arguments and then goes on to state his reasons. He then uses transitional phrases, "Those of us... the difference between the death penalty in theory and what happens when you actually try to use it,” to go on to discuss various cases to support his reasons. Furthermore, he indicates that mental illness is a determining factor when a person commits a crime. He refers to the Middle Ages when he states that “Since the Middle Ages… the execution of anyone who was mentally ill was prohibited in order to understand what was about to happen to him and why.” He makes this reference to illustrate that the laws of the Middle Ages in dealing with mentally ill people are far better than our current laws, even though the Middle Ages were a barbaric time. Bruck then goes on to state that the execution of innocents could and would happen. He supports his point by mentioning the tort ex… halfway through the document… using various cases to support his argument. He mainly uses techniques such as juxtaposition, rhetorical question, pathos, and logos to strengthen his argument. However, his failure to use a number of techniques makes his essay short. Furthermore, when he states that “these are just annoying facts,” he ignores the entire argument preceding that sentence making it seem like his argument is irrelevant. He also doesn't tell his readers that he is a lawyer and doesn't even mention his cases, which would have given him a much better authoritative position than Mayor Koch to express his views on the death penalty. However, I agree that justice demands that murderers be punished, but not with execution but rather with imprisonment in which their bad conscience would become their enemy and tormentor for life...