The United States should abolish Capital Punishment

Rather than divide my case into traditional contentions, I'm trying a new approach and I hope it works out. Death Penalty- The punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime=Practical argument against the Death Penalty=1. The Death Penalty has few if any unique benefits.2. The Death Penalty has many unique harms.3. Therefore, the Death Penalty should be abolished. Premise one:This is quite obvious, the only true benefit I can see offered by the Death Penalty in the United States is that it permanently incapacitates a murderer. While this is clearly a good thing, due to the absurdly slow and cumbersome nature of Capital Punishment in the United States, said benefit is largely reduced. Indeed, with the resources saved by abolishing the Death Penalty, the benefits reaped would largely outweigh, which leads to premise two. Premise two:The Death Penalty has severe negative affects. one example is cost. Here are some examples: "Since 1983, taxpayers in New Jersey have paid $253 million more for death penalty trials than they would have paid for trials not seeking execution" "A recent Duke University study of North Carolina's death penalty costs found that the state could save $11 million a year by substituting life in prison for the death penalty""The Tennessee Comptroller of the Currency recently estimated that death penalty trials cost an average of 48 percent more than trials in which prosecutors sought life sentences. ""A Florida study found the state could cut its costs by $51 million simply by eliminating the death penalty. ""Overall, according to Dieter, the studies have uniformly and conservatively shown that a death-penalty trial costs $1 million more than one in which prosecutors seek life without parole. "[1]All of these statistics were found from Fox News, so any possibility of bias is highly illogical, if anything Fox News would be biased in support of the Death Penalty. Innocence is another one of these negative effects. Death Penalty information center shows 138 individuals sentenced to die who were later found innocent. [2] They also list nine executd individuals executed who's guilt is seriously questionable. Are we supposed to accept this? Over 100 innocents sentenced to die, for a punishment that does not even have any benefits? Capital Punishment also brutalizes society, studies say, causing murder to actually increase! [3]. Indeed, “disturbed persons learning about an impending or completed execution, interpret the execution as governmental modeling of killing, suggesting to their minds that killing therefore becomes an acceptable means of righting wrongs”[4]Premise three logically follows. I reserve the right to bring in more examples and sources for this. =Moral argument=1. Murder is the premeditated killing of a human being by a citizen, which is immoral.2. The Death Penalty is the premeditated killing of a human being guilty of a crime by a government.3. If an action is immoral, it matters not who performs it.4. The guilt of a person is not enough to turn an immoral action into a moral action.5. Therefore, the Death Penalty is immoral. Of this, I feel that the only true debate will take place on the morality of Capital Punishmen, so I will now justify my argument. Why Capital Punishment is immoralCapital punishment is an ancient, and curious, method of punishment. Rather than attempt to help a criminal become a working member of society, we are simply dismissing them as worthless, and extreminating them. It may be thought that Capital murderers are beyond rehabilitation, and to dispute this I would like to bring in the example of Stanley Williams, executed in 2005. His crimes were indeed heinous, however this is proof that even the worst of criminals can stll be rehabilitated. While on Death Row he became a christian, wrote books, and founded programs for peace and anti-gang violence. [5]So let's take this in perspective. We are taking a man who has shown us that he has repented for his crime, rather than making him a useful member of society (even prison society, he could be used as a perfect example) we're using a punishment on him that not only costs us massive amounts of money, but is suggested to brutalize society and cause even more violence? Not to mention how backward it makes us look compared with most other nations who have abolished the Death Penalty. This simply makes no sense. If my Opponent wants more examples of repented murderers, I would be happy to give him some. I greatly anticipate Con's reply, and am looking forward to this debate. Sources:1. . http://www.foxnews.com...2. . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...3. . http://web.rollins.edu...4. . http://en.wikipedia.org...5. . http://en.wikipedia.org...