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

Now I’ll present my arguments for why the USA shouldn't ban the death penalty. The death penalty is almost always used as a punishment for murder (1). So in this debate I’m going to focus on murders. Murder is a very serious crime. You take the life of one or more people and you also cause lots of grief to the friends and families of the people who are murdered. Since the damage of a murder is so big, we must do all we can to make sure the amount of murders gets minimized. Unfortunately it’s very hard to prevent all murders. So we should also look at ways to minimize the damage to society once a murder does happen. I’m going to explain how the death penalty will minimize the damage to society with my arguments. Argument 1: the death penalty prevents murders The sad reality is that murders happen. In 2014 almost 12.000 murders happened in the USA (2). So, are we somehow able to use those murders from the past to prevent murders in the future? The answer is yes. To quote from a 2003 study done at the Emory University: “Our results suggest that capital punishment has a strong deterrent effect; each execution results, on average, in 18 fewer murders - with a margin of error of plus or minus 10. ” (3) This is one way the death penalty prevents crime, but there's another one I'll present in my next argument. Argument 2: the death penalty is a tool to help the police in investigations In many countries a culprit gets a lower punishment when he cooperates with the police. If a country has the death penalty the police can sweep the death penalty off the table if the culprit cooperates. This is a pretty effective way to get more information out of the culprit. For example, where he hid the body of the victim. Getting information like this means the police has to spend less time on investigating. The time saved means the police has more time for other tasks. For example, direct patrols. By patrolling in the areas and on the times with the highest risks of serious crimes the amount of serious crimes can be reduced (4). So by having the death penalty and using it many murders and other crimes can be prevented. But the death penalty doesn’t just prevent suffering from future crimes. It also reduces suffering from the murders that already happened. This brings me to my third argument. Argument 3: the death penalty provides relief for the victims In a murder there are many victims. The most obvious are the people who got murdered. But there are more. The friends and families of the victim are also victims. They are suffering from a lot of grief, but also rage towards the culprit. When the culprit gets the death penalty, the bereaved can finally start to experience peace. Allow me to make this more tangible with a story: Ann Pace of Jackson stood alone with a sign bearing pictures of her daughter who was killed by a man named Derrick Todd Lee in 2002. Charlotte Murray Pace was 22. Her mother described her four years, so far, of waiting for Lee’s execution as “hideous. ” While she said Lee’s death may not bring closure, she thinks it may bring peace. “I have this constant awareness of him breathing air, visiting with his family, doing all those things that he denied so many people, that he denied my daughter,” Pace said. “(Once he is dead), he will not be at my table. He will not be in my head. Then, it will be all about Murray and not about him. ” (5) These three arguments show that having the death penalty reduces crime, makes it easier for the bereaved to find peace and saves the police time. I will now hand the debate over to pro, so he can argue why the US should ban the death penalty. Sources: 1) . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...2) . http://www.statista.com...3) . http://cjlf.org... 4) . https://www.ncjrs.gov...5) . http://prodpquotes.info...