In Truman Capote's famous non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, there is evidence that supports the injustices of the trial: the death penalty. The end result of the trail was never to be anything other than death. “Of all the people in the world, the Clutters were the least likely to be murdered” (Capote 85). We know that the two men who killed the Clutter family, Perry Smith and Bill Hickock, planned the crime with malice and foresight. Although the actions were cruel and evil, does Death Row match what they did if their past, childhood environment, and situation are bad. Capote shows the effect of childhood on killers and whether the death penalty is just. Capote gives the killers a voice to show their humanity by recounting their childhood lives. He questions whether the death penalty is just and whether inherent evil is a product of childhood or society. Is it nature or nurture? Capote provides insight into the minds of killers and the nature versus nurture theory. The detailed account of the killers' childhood makes the reader sympathize with the Clutter family killers, Smith and Hickock. Should they reserve the death penalty? Did Truman Capote take a position on the death penalty? By giving readers a detailed account of the childhoods of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, Capote prepares the reader for the nurture versus nature debate over the death penalty. The question then becomes: do the effects (if any) caused by the environment in childhood make one a trained killer or a born killer? Capote uses different voices to tell the story, creating intimacy between the readers and the murders, the readers and the victims, and all the other players in this event: citizens, investigators, family friends. This intimacy led to the middle of the paper with Smith during his time on death row, rendering his impartial writing biased. By the time Smith and Hickock are hanged, Smith is portrayed as a misunderstood good guy in the good guy/bad guy literary device. Capote did not receive the death penalty, he used the double hand as a dramatic ending to In Cold Blood. I thought of the third section of In Cold Blood whenever Hickock contemplates or chokes during a sexual act, Smith reacts in an angry or jealous manner. Capote repeatedly interprets Smith's actions towards Hickock as showing his morality, when Hickock says he has none. Capote says Smith prevents the rape of Nancy Clutter for moral reasons. Capote shows this again in the scene in which Hickock has a prosttsuite in the room during his stay in Mexico. Works Cited Capote, Truman. In cold blood. Random house. new York. 1965.