Welcome to Gaia! ::

I recently had a debate on death penalty for speech and debate class, but I'm not really satisfied with what the other team came up with. I'm con death penalty (against), and i'd like to know some perspectives and facts from other people (mainly pro).

Why death penalty should be abolished:

1. Doesn't effectively deter serious crime. 80% of experts in criminology agree with this. The deterrence of crime depends on would-be murderers identifying with executed killers. Psychological studies show that humans identify with those whom we admire or envy. It is highly unlikely that calculating killers would identify with outcasts who have committed brutal and cowardly crimes. The contrast leads to potential killers thinking that the death penalty is reserved for people unlike themselves
2. Innocents can be wrongly convicted. I'm aware that innocents can be wrongly convicted in any situation, but for the death penalty, there is no formal system in which an innocent on death row can present evidence of his/her innocence.

3. $$$- super costly. Each death penalty case averages about $1.2 million dollars each. In Florida, $3.2 million, North Carolina, $2.6 million, and California, a whopping $90 million a year. Randy Hearrell, executive director of the Kansas Judicial Council, said a life without parole option could save the state between $400,000 and $500,000 per capital murder trial. (and remember, this is your money)

4. Against 8th ammendment of the bill of rights. The 8th amendment clearly states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
For lethal injection, incompetant attendants are used becuase doctors aren't liscensed to kill. Since they don't know much medical stuff, they have to cut up slice the convicted to find a suitable vein.
Electric chair: Convicteds are burnt in the electric chair for over 15 minutes before they finally die. When the electric chair was first introduced in 1930, it was tested on live pigs in public. Reporters at the event exclaimed that it was more savage than being drawn and quartered. Drawing and quartering is when a man is hung to death, savagely taken down from his post, has his intestines pulled out and burned, and then cut into quarters.


info collected from :: The Death Penalty by Gail B. Stewart, ncadp.com or National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and Wikipedia.


er...good luck?

i say they way they killed a person they should be killed the same way you know an eye for a eye.

i think spending you whole life in jail is worse than dying plus if they killed somebody your just doing what they did

im also with her because if bail happens what then another 10 people dead or whatever which means that wasn't enough to change there life so they do need in some cases

I am mostly neutral about it because my brother was murdered and the guy that did it was sentenced to death and I know it won't fix anything or bring my brother back but I also don't want him to get out and kill anyone else I know because he knows all my family and he does alot of drugs and when he killed one of my brother he was high on coke and drunk. I am glad in a way that he is not going to be able to hurt anyone anymore but giving him the death penalty is the same as what he did to my brother and that isn't right. I am confused about how to word how I feel about it but maybe someone can make a little bit of sense out of it lol.

I agree f someone murdered say 5 people and then raped 3, They should have no way of getting out and doing it again. When someone is just put in jail, if they have a good enough lawyer their sentence can be reduced and that person could just commit even more crimes. With death penalty, there is no chance of that happening.