Resolved: In the United States, capital punishment should be outlawed.

I want to briefly thank the Con for his arguments, I will post my opening arguments with no rebuttals this round.To clarify even further beyond the defintion I provided for capital punishment, I am arguing in favor of capital punishment only in the specific circumstances that it is proportional and necessary, and should be reserved only for those cases. Argument 1: Would-be criminals fear the death penalty. Studies upon studies show that the death penalty really does deter people from committing murder in situations where the death penalty would be brought upon the perpetrator. Studies in New Jersey show that between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer, with some exceptions. [1]Those exceptions, of course, would be the mentally ill that ultimately commit those heinous crimes anyways. Examples of those people range from people like Jefferey Dahmer to the perpetrators involved in school shootings. However, even in those situations where the killer is apprehended and taken into custody, as the death penalty lingers in their future, they still show definite signs of fear of the death penalty.For example, Ted Bundy, clearly showed that he feared dying, after waiting nine years in prison. On several occasions, Ted Bundy said things to try to prove his innocence by blaming what he did on pornography, and admitting where he hid several dead bodies. The L.A. Times even had an article talking about how Bundy was weeping and praying the day of his death, which was an obvious sign that capital punishment was a deterrent to him. [2]Bundy among many others have shown that capital punishment is a deterrent to would be criminals and even to those who have already comitted the crime.Argument 2: It provides closure to victims or their families.When someone is murdered, in most cases, the person that was murdered has family that cares for them, and will be affected by the murder or harm of their loved one. There are many cases in which the victim of a murder (being the family), actually seek justice to be returned to the perpetrator. As a matter of fact, it's not just closure that families look for in the death penalty, but rather justice, retribution, and closure. Certain cases, like the ones found here [3]. show the variety of people who found solace in the death penalty for whatever reasons. Mostly, closure is provided to the victims knowing that the person who murdered their loved one will no longer live to commit that same crime again.Even in the situation found here, [4] the family claims that they found no closure in the killer of their loved one, but they found peace mostly in the fact that justice was served. Which leads to the next brief argument.Argument 3: Capital punishment is justice. We live in a country where our just system tries it's best to match the crime with the penalty. Petty theft, running a red light, and rape don't all have the same penalty, and for good reasons. However, as hard as our justice system tries, it has yet to provide a proportional punishment for premeditated murder, as in some states, it holds the same penalty for non-lethal violence towards a person-- life without parole. As shown in the article found at [4], the victim who witnessed the death of the man who killed his sister, recognizes the death penalty to be an equal punishment for murder in a fair justice system. Back to the idea of deterrance, the death penalty, if set as the universal punishment for premeditated murder, would prevent those would-be criminals from realizing that there was no difference between the penalties for non-lethal violence and premeditated murder.I would like to say that I briefly looked over the Con's opening arguments, and I do realize that he started off mainly arguing against deterrance. This round, however, I mainly focused on my opening arguments, and will use the next round for rebuttals.I thank the Con once again for the debate, and look forward to his rebuttals.[1] http://www.cbsnews.com...[2] http://articles.latimes.com...[3]http://www.huffingtonpost.com...[4] http://www.baltimoresun.com...