October beginner's tournament: The USA should get rid of the death penalty

May the best debater win! Cost and Efficiency: The death penalty is a notoriously costly form of punishment for criminal offenders. Some may view the death penalty as a form of retribution for the victims’ families, but the expense at which the prisons and states use the death penalty is preposterous. Death Penalty Info (1) says that, “Texas, with over 300 people on death row, is spending an estimated $2.3 million per case, but its murder rate remains one of the highest in the country,” and , “In financially strapped California, one report estimated that the state could save $90 million each year by abolishing capital punishment. ” The cost created by the death penalty is outrageous, and implementing it in states that currently do not have it would be preposterously costly, considering the fact that a death penalty case in Texas costs three times as much as holding an offender in a maximum security cell for 40 years. In Florida, it costs six time as much to execute a prisoner rather than incarcerating the offender for life. This process is widely publicised as a remedy to criminal violence, but a plethora of studies suggest otherwise. Amnesty USA (2) states that, “In April 2012, The National Research Council concluded that studies claiming that the death penalty affects murder rates were "fundamentally flawed" because they did not consider the effects of noncapital punishments and used "incomplete or implausible models. " A 2009 survey of criminologists revealed that over 88% believed the death penalty was NOT a deterrent to murder. ” Also, deterrence rates have not shown much correlation between the death penalty and murder rates. Amnesty USA states, “The threat of execution at some future date is unlikely to enter the minds of those acting under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, those who are in the grip of fear or rage, those who are panicking while committing another crime (such as a robbery), or those who suffer from mental illness or mental retardation and do not fully understand the gravity of their crime. ” Therefore, drawing from the graph and earlier evidence, the death penalty is not worth the cost for a virtually ineffective system. It is impossible to use the death penalty as a deterrence, because most murderous crimes often source from substance-related influence, being taken in grips of fear and rage, panicking from committing other acts of criminality, or mental illness. What one person does in “the heat of the moment” is not predictable, to say the least, and the death penalty is not an effective deterrent measure in the prevention of violent crimes. In conclusion, the death penalty is not worth the cost, because of the ineffectivity that results from it. Innocent Lives: There is always a factor of innocence that plays a role in the persecution of criminals. While they may be a suspect, there are often cases of false imprisonment. In regards to the death penalty, false imprisonment is a serious ordeal. Innocent people are being put on death row, and facing the threat of death for crimes they did not commit. Since 1983, there have been several cases in which there was strong evidence, if not tangible, of people who were executed under false persecution. Death Penalty Info (3) reports that there were 11 cases of execution in cases where there was very strong evidence in the innocence of the accused. This is astounding, considering the fact that the death penalty is supposed to be a tool of justice for violent offenders. Our justice system relies on the principle that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Is it just that people are put on death row and executed, without clear evidence stacked against them? I think not. In a just society, the accused should have almost insurmountable evidence against them to be incarcerated, let alone executed. The reliability of the capital punishment system is utterly sad, especially considering the burden it puts on states who have to bear the cost. Conclusion: I stand with my claims that the USA should get rid of the death penalty, for its absurd cost, relative ineffectiveness, and the endangerment of innocent lives that it poses. Once again, I would like to thank my opponent for undertaking this debate with me, and I hope it turns out to be an enlightening discourse. I hand it over to you, Con! Sources: . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... . http://www.amnestyusa.org... . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...