Death Penalty
for
Side Score: 16
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against
Side Score: 23
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So you're okay with all the money they are spending on trying to execute the person when all that money could be and should be going out to rape or murder victims? I personally believe that the dealth penalty should be executed and not the people. If we execute the person then wouldn't we just be wasting time, effort, and money to give them a way out? I mean the death penalty is giving them a passage out of trouble, they wouldn't have to deal with the effects they had on the world. They would just die. Side: Against
We spend more money by not executing them quick enough. If someone commits a crime worthy of the death penalty, and there is no death penalty, then they will be in jail for a long time costing money anyway. We lose money by delaying the actual execution so there is money wasted by jailing the person and then killing them. Side: Against
Do you honestly believe that it costs more to kill a felon than it does to feed, clothe, and shelter them for life? Prison upkeep is one of the most expensive programs funded by the US government. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/us/ Side: For
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I never said you said humane. That's the arguement hippies normally use to justify keeping these sick people from the needle, even though that's what they deserve most of the time. Plus, the number of people that are wrongly exectued are extremely out numbered by the people who were correctly executed. Side: For
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I want to add before I say anything else that I'm from Sweden and that my argument will be colored by Sweden's overly soft law system. I believe that death penalties should be enforced in severe cases were the victims might still be at risk when the convict is released. Side: For
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There are many reasons the death penalty should be abolished. It is a complex issue and it is difficult to point to any single fact or argument as the most important. 1) Executions are carried out at staggering cost to taxpayers. It costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life. A recent New Jersey Policy Perspectives report concluded that the state's death penalty has cost taxpayers $253 million since 1983, a figure that is over and above the costs that would have been incurred had the state utilized a sentence of life without parole instead of death. "From a strictly financial perspective, it is hard to reach a conclusion other than this: New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one," the report concluded. Michael Murphy, former Morris County, NJ prosecutor, remarked: "If you were to ask me how $11 million a year could best protect the people of New Jersey, I would tell you by giving the law enforcement community more resources. I'm not interested in hypotheticals or abstractions, I want the tools for law enforcement to do their job, and $11 million can buy a lot of tools." 2) There is no credible evidence that capital punishment deters crime. Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences. Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate. 3) Innocent people have been executed. The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 139 men and women have been released from Death Row nationally....some only minutes away from execution. Moreover, in the past two years evidence has come to light which indicates that four men may have been wrongfully EXECUTED in recent years for crimes they did not commit. This error rate is simply appalling, and completely unacceptable, when we are talking about life and death. 4) Race plays a role in determining who lives and who dies. The race of the victim and the race of the defendant in capital cases are major factors in determining who is sentenced to die in this country. In 1990 a report from the General Accounting Office concluded that "in 82 percent of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e. those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks." 5) The death penalty is applied at random. Politics, quality of legal counsel and the jurisdiction where a crime is committed are more often the determining factors in a death penalty case than the facts of the crime itself. The death penalty is a lethal lottery: of the 22,000 homicides committed every year approximately 150 people are sentenced to death. 6) Capital punishment goes against almost every religion. Although isolated passages of religious scripture have been quoted in support of the death penalty, almost all religious groups in the United States regard executions as immoral. 7) The USA is keeping company with notorious human rights abusers. The vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South America — more than 139 nations worldwide — have abandoned capital punishment in law or in practice. The United States remains in the same company as Iraq, Iran and China as one of the major advocates and users of capital punishment. 8) Millions currently spent on the death penalty could be used to assist the families of murder victims. Many family members who have lost love ones to murder feel that the death penalty will not heal their wounds nor will it end their pain; the extended process prior to executions can prolong the agony experienced by the family. Funds now being used for the costly process of executions could be used to help families put their lives back together through counseling, restitution, crime victim hotlines, and other services addressing their needs. 9) Bad Lawyers are a Persistent Problem in Capital Cases Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is provided. Almost all defendants in capital cases cannot afford their own attorneys. In many cases, the appointed attorneys are overworked, underpaid, or lacking the trial experience required for death penalty cases. There have even been instances in which lawyers appointed to a death case were so inexperienced that they were completely unprepared for the sentencing phase of the trial. Other appointed attorneys have slept through parts of the trial, or arrived at the court under the influence of alcohol. 10) Life Without Parole is a Sensible Alternative to the Death Penalty In every state that retains the death penalty, jurors have the option of sentencing convicted capital murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The sentence is cheaper to tax-payers and keeps violent offenders off the streets for good. Unlike the death penalty, a sentence of Life Without Parole also allows mistakes to be corrected. There are currently over 3,300 people in California who have received this alternative sentence, which also has a more limited appeals process last approximately 3 years. According to the California Governor's Office, only seven people sentenced to life without parole have been released since the state provided for this option in 1977, and this occurred because they were able to prove their innocence. Side: Against
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Yeah, it does make us as bad as them. It makes us worse because all we're doing is being hyporcritical. They can pay with what they've done in prison a hell of a lot better then they could if we just killed them, couldn't they. You can learn from your mistakes if you're dead. We shouldn't get to decide when it ends. That's not what life is for. Deciding when people die just because they did something wrong. It's not right. Side: Against
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We might go to their level but they took an life that did not need to be taken if they kill someone that had nothing to do but be a good mother to a child then that person who killed the mother or the child then that makes them a bad person so its taking a life that took a life. Side: For
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There are many reasons for which I am against the death penalty: (1) There is not a clear criterion. One man will be in line for the death penalty for killing two cops. A serial killer/rapist will have the death penalty just like the men who committed crimes against humanity. (2) Albert Camus could not have said this better, so I will translate the best I can what he wrote in Reflexions sur la Guillotine: "the person who killed must die. This is a violent sentiment, but not a principle. Law, by definition, cannot obey to the same laws of nature. If murder is in the nature of man, law is not made to imitate or reproduce this nature. It is made to correct our nature" (3) Also, there is always the risk of making a mistake. (4)Death penalty does not intimidate people from committing a crime. (5) Death penalty will not bring the victims back to life… Side: Against
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