Sherman Alexie’s “Capital Punishment” made me feel sad when reading it. I have always believed that America can do something other than execution of criminals. Something that surprised me in this poem was when the speaker says, “but the killer doesn’t want much: baked potato, salad, tall glass of ice water” (3-4). I always thought of criminal’s last meals being extravagant. I always thought their last meal would be expensive and something they don’t have very often. Another part of the poem that really stuck out to me was when the speaker repeated “(I am not a witness)” (5,22,41,64,79). Then the speaker changes to “(I am a witness)” (102) at the end of the poem. I believe that during the poem the speaker believes he is only the cook for the