Capital punishment in Texas is unjust

**My opponents arguments and rebuttals are italicized, my argument and rebuttals are bolded / italicized.I shall begin by addressng my opponents arguments towards my case." The death penalty does not make communities safer. Wisconsin, which has not had the death penalty for 150 years, has a murder rate that is half that of states like Texas and Florida that use the death penalty frequently. "While this fact may seem interesting, I will explain why Wisconsin has half the murder rate.[1] Wisconsins Population - 5,686,986[1] Texas's Population - 25.145,561Texas has five times the amount of people, so when you say that Wisconsin has half the murder rate, this logically explains that outcome." A New York Times survey demonstrated that the homicide rate in states with capital punishment have been 48% to 101% higher than those without the death penalty. (Raymond Bonner and Ford Fessenden, "Absence of Executions," New York Times, September 22, 2000"I am not sure how this is correct. According to Beaura of Criminal Justice, there has been a decrease in crime after Capital Punishment was increased. While this was said in September 2000, we can see overall it does, in fact, deter crime, and is more "recent" going all the way up to the end of 2000.http://wesleylowe.com..."Using conservative rough projections, the Commission estimates the annual costs of the present (death penalty) system to be $137 million per year." The cost of a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty would be $11.5 million per year." This is essentially stating the death penalty gas a much higher cost than lifetime incarceration. Using incarceration would save $125 million dollars a year. This is sufficient enough to counter your sub point.My opponent is completely misconstruing my whole contention and avoiding the key argument within that. I will re-quote a passage from my contentn two, sub point A: Even though we are calculating a 75% greater cell cost for the DP than for equivalent LWOP cases, equivalent LWOP cases appear to be significantly more expensive, over time, than their DP counterparts. For years, opponents have improperly compared the cost of all LWOP cases to DP cases, when only the DP equivalent LWOP cases are relevant."The majority of this sub point is focusing on "good time credit." Good time credit is earned for "good behavior" described in law as "exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations." So the criminal in question would have to do an exemplary act to acquire any "good time." By the time the criminal has achieved this feat is is most probable that he/she will have no intention of further committing any more criminal acts."This whole rebuttal is flawed. If you re-read my sub point B, I specify TWO cases where this is NOT the face. The first one with James Moore, where the family spared his life for life time imprisonment was eligible for parole in a couple of years. What is so "just" about that? If we look at my second example with Kenneth McDuff, we see, again, my opponent is misleading you. Kenneth killed a 16 year old girl, and two boys and was sentenced to life in prison. He was released because of overflowing in the prisons, and then killed again. Prostitute Sarafia Parker, 31, had been beaten, strangled and dumped in a field. He was then again released because of parole. I will finally address my opponents source to strengthen his first contentionThis article, from the Death Penalty Information Center, has an in-depth analyze on how the innocent are caught in the flaws of the death penalty. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...... II: The Cases of InnocenceFirst off, if you would be so kind as to go to that specific place he is referencing in the article. First off, lets look at the 7 cases and narrow it down to the two cases that specificy "not released" in the Texas court. Andrew Lee Mitchell Texas Conviction 1981 Released 1993 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the murder conviction of Mitchell, within two days of execution in 1984, because the sheriff's department suppressed statements from law officers who reported seeing the victim alive two hours after the alleged murder. A key witness also recanted his testimony. The prosecutor in Mitchell's case filed an affidavit saying that Mitchell had not received a fair trial. Mitchell was freed in 1993 and no re-trial has been held. As we can see here, an innocent man wasn't killed, but was actually let go due to the unfairness of the trial. Kerry Max Cook Texas Conviction 1978 Not Released Cook was originally convicted of killing Linda Jo Edwards in 1978. In 1988, he came within 11 days of execution, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Texas Court to review its decision. Cook's conviction was overturned in 1991. He was re-tried in 1992, but the trial ended in a hung jury. In 1993, a state district judge ruled that prosecutors had engaged in systematic misconduct, surpressing key evidence. In 1994, Cook was tried again, and this time found guilty and again sentenced to death. On Nov. 6, 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his conviction, saying that "prosecutorial and police misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset." The court ruled that key testimony from the 1994 trial could not be used in any further prosecution. It is uncertain whether he will be re-tried. Again, my opponent doesn't show a case of a man being wronfully executed. My opponent fails to understand the resolution were debating. We need to look at specifically Texas, and not other states that may be unjust. I have shown why Capital Punishment in Texas is the most just way with dealing with criminals. "In J.J. Rousseau's The Social Contract written in 1762, he says the following: Again, every rogue who criminously attacks social rights becomes, by his wrong, a rebel and a traitor to his fatherland. By contravening its laws, he ceases to be one of its citizens: he even wages war against it." The death penalty is a warning, just like a lighthouse throwing its beams out to sea. We hear about shipwrecks, but we do not hear about the ships the lighthouse guides safely on their way. We do not have proof of the number of ships it saves, but we do not tear the lighthouse down. -poet Hyman Barshay "Indeed, the decision that capital punishment may be the appropriate sanction in extreme cases is an expression of the community's belief that certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death." ~ Supreme Court of the United States of America "If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by my friends the murderers." -- Alphonse Karr (1808-1890) My case still stand, I have rebuttad my opponents arguments towards my own case, and my arguments towards his still stand, flowing through the round.