Resolved: The death penalty should be legalized.

-=Rebuttals=-"The death penalty should be legalized as it lowers criminal rate, increases national security, and protects citizens"These claims will be discussed later."It lowers criminal rate, and murder rate"1. I've provided a host of evidence stating otherwise, that the death penalty does not deter crime. Cross apply the Donohue and Wolfers evidence to counter this claim.2. Evidence further proves it does not deter crime. Michael Booth, journalist for the Denver Post details, "The Death Penalty Information Center points to higher murder rates in states that have the death penalty as proof the sentencing threat does not deter crime." [1] The article goes on to cite Cornell University law professor John Blume, "There's no credible evidence of deterrence." Max Ehrenfreund emphasizes this notion in the Washington Post, stating, "Fagan and two collaborators recently compared murder rates in Hong Kong, where capital punishment was abolished in 1993, and Singapore, where a death sentence is mandatory for murder and other crimes and is typically administered within a year and a half. The researchers found little difference between the two Asian metropolises." [2] The Hong Kong and Singapore study [3] shows little to no disparity between deterrence with or without the death penalty. Thus, the claim that capital punishment deters crime falls. The Washington Post article later references another study, being the one by Donohue and Wolfers.3. Removal and illegalization of the death penalty can is a superior crime deterrent. The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty explains how this works. "Over the past several years, there has been a steep drop-off in the use of the death penalty. No one has been executed in North Carolina since 2006. The number of death sentences handed down by juries has been declining for years, and in 2012 for the first time, no one received the death penalty in North Carolina. Even prosecutors have declined to seek the death penalty in all but a handful of cases. Yet, according to the N.C. Department of Justice, the state murder rate has declined in the years since executions stopped. Given this fact, there is no credible argument that the death penalty deters crime." [4]4. No evidence is used to back up his/her claim that each execution stops 5 murders.5. Criminals are obviously not too scared to commit crimes because of impending doom, primarily due to the fact that evidence shows no downward trend in criminal action as a result of the death penalty.'"Murderers can be executed, so it's safer for travel or public"1. Criminal activity will occur regardless of any punishment.2. Prison time can accomplish the same safety, security, and protection for its citizens without causing obligatory cyclical murder and being inherently inhumane in nature.3. Using the death penalty to provide security is hypocritical. Trying to keep person a safe by killing person b is contradictory.4. If a government values safety, use the money used for the death penalty to ramp up prison security and guard. The cost of the death penalty is exceptional. Kelly Phillips Erb of Forbes documents, "In terms of costs, a report of the Washington State Bar Association. found that death penalty cases are estimated to generate roughly $470,000 in additional costs to the prosecution and defense." [5] Instead, this money could be used to heighten security at prisons, thus disallowing criminals to escape. Ultimately, that would ensure the same safety and security for citizens without murder and unnecessary death."Executions are not common and only used for crimes that have been stated to be punishable by execution."1. Supposed criminals are not always guilty of the crimes they have allegedly commited. Cross apply the evidence I brought stating that at a conservative estimate of 4.1% of death penalty victims are actually innocent of their conviction. 2. Convicts die innocently. In fact, the Huffington Post published an article detailing the problem. "The four authors [of the study] reviewed the outcomes of the 7,482 death sentences handed down from 1973 to 2004. Of that group, 117, or 1.6 percent, were exonerated [acquitted, released] But with enough time and resources, the authors concluded that at least 4.1 percent of death row inmates would have been exonerated. In other words, more than 200 other prisoners would have been cleared during those three decades." [6] Specifically, that number equates to 301 (rounded) dying innocently from the death penalty. This irrefutably proves inherent flaws with capital punishment, and exemplifies just how erroneous the system really is. Capital punishment is definitely fairly common (7,482 from 1973 to 2004) and not necessarily only used for specific crimes.3. Capital punishment use is increasing in variety. Cross apply the evidence from Amnesty Internation, where they explain that more and more countries are using the death penalty to punish even perceived threats. Even if the threats have not been confirmed, these convicts can be served capital punishment.-=Claims=-My opponent has not directly refuted any of my points. Allow me to bring those back up.Morality Argument:Capital punishment is immoral because:A. Ideology as such results in obligatory cyclical murderB. Capital punishment results in hypocrisy and contradiction of the current law.C. In short, it's murder.Inhumanity Argument:The death penalty is inhumane because:A. Pain is frequently torturousB. Torture is often executed while the patient is consciousC. Torture is internationally unaccpetable; the death penalty must be as well."Worthy" Crime Argument:This argument is fallible against capital punishment because:A. Capital punishment crimes deviate from standards.B. Common executions are unjustifiable based on predetermined crimes.C. Minors are not given a second chance.Innocence Argument:Innocence contradicts the death penalty because:A. Many convicts are killed innocentlyB. Justice systems are not just when they don't achieve justice.C. The lack of a just society allows for abuse to judicial systems as a whole.Deterrence Argument:Capital punishment does not deter crime because:A. Evidence suggests no correlation between capital punishment and decrease in crime rates.B. Evidence contrastly shows a decrease in crime rates when the death penalty was abolished.C. Evidence showing a trend of decreased crime in concurrency with capital punishment is fragile and not credible.Please note these arguments and consider them when voting. Good luck on further rounds! :)Sources:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[1] http://www.denverpost.com...[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com...[3] http://papers.ssrn.com...[4] http://nccadp.org...[5] http://www.forbes.com...[6] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...