The US should abolish the death penalty

I'm sure Tejretics will provide strong arguments, and I look forward to it! Wrongful death of innocents With our current system, we cannot guarantee 100% accuracy with our convictions. Since 1973, 155 individuals on death row have been exonerated [1]. These individuals were either acquitted, pardoned, or charges were dismissed. As horrible as it is to say, these were the lucky ones. It seems extremely likely we have executed at least 10 innocent men. As an example, Ruben Cantu was put to death in 1993. After his death, testimony was submitted which pleads his innocence: A two-part investigative series by the Houston Chronicle casts serious doubt on the guilt of a Texas man who was executed in 1993. Ruben Cantu had persistently proclaimed his innocence and was only 17 when he was charged with capital murder for the shooting death of a San Antonio man during an attempted robbery. […] Moreover, both a key eyewitness in the state's case against Cantu and Cantu's co-defendant have come forward to say that Texas executed an innocent man. Juan Moreno, who was wounded during the attempted robbery and was a key eyewitness in the case against Cantu, now says that it was not Cantu who shot him and that he only identified Cantu as the shooter because he felt pressured and was afraid of the authorities. […] In addition, David Garza, Cantu's co-defendant during his 1985 trial, recently signed a sworn affidavit saying that he allowed Cantu to be accused and executed even though he wasn't with him on the night of the killing. Garza stated, "Part of me died when he died. You've got a 17-year-old who went to his grave for something he did not do. Texas murdered an innocent person. "[2] These type of errors illustrate our system is not perfect. In fact, a peer reviewed study published in PNAS [4] has concluded that “4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the US in the modern era are innocent”. “A team of legal experts and statisticians from Michigan and Pennsylvania used the latest statistical techniques to produce a peer-reviewed estimate of the “dark figure” that lies behind the death penalty – how many of the more than 8,000 men and women who have been put on death row since the 1970s were falsely convicted. The team arrived at a deliberately conservative figure that lays bare the extent of possible miscarriages of justice, suggesting that the innocence of more than 200 prisoners still in the system may never be recognised. [3] We know innocent men have been sentenced to death, innocent men have been executed, and there is an extremely good chance there will be more of both in the future if we continue in our current strategy. As Con will be supporting the death penalty, he will need to justify a punishment which can and does kill innocents. How can we call it justice when innocents die because of it? If we are killing innocents (which we are) then we ourselves are murderers. We have a choice between maintaining our unethical actions or striving for better. High cost of the death penalty Death penalty cases cost the taxpayers more than life imprisonment. When the cost of a dual trial (automatic appeal mandated by law), extra attorneys (also mandated by law), manning and providing higher security housing, and execution is added up, the cost is significantly more than non-capital sentencing and punishment. The numbers below are per individual case and represent common expenditures. Kansas: Non-death penalty cases and punishment -$740,000 Death penalty case costs through execution - $1.26 million. [4] Texas: Non-death penalty cases and punishment - $693,500 (40 years) Death penalty costs – $2.3 million [5] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The resources spent towards capital cases could be better spent on education, roads, social programs, etc while mainting the sanctity of human life, but only if we are willing to kill executions. Deterrence One common arguments for the death penalty is that the threat of death deters other would-be murders. However, this claim is dubious. The National Research Council of the National Academies reviewed three decades worth of data and concluded that a deterrence effect is not clear. “The committee concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates. Therefore, the committee recommends that these studies not be used to inform deliberations requiring judgments about the effect of the death penalty on homicide. ” [6] One other thing, we tell would-be murderers not to take a human life or we will take theirs, and this logic is no different than telling a child not to hit or we will spank (hit) them. Capital punishment is a very rudimentary form of morality/ethics. If we want different results than we have always had, then we need to approach the problem from a new angle. Summary Overall, capital punishment cannot deliver what it promises. Instead it delivers a high-priced inefficient illusion of deterrence and justice in deference to an antiquated moral code. It is time for us to move past ancient barbarism and find productive solutions. Back to you, Con. [1] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [2] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [3] . http://www.theguardian.com... [4] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [5] . http://www.criminaljusticedegreehub.com... [6] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...