The Death Penalty Should be Illegal

I would like to bring to attention my opponent"s last arguments now. Rebuttal 1 The death penalty is not a deterrence. Have you seen the death penalty being a deterrence lately? Ferguson shootings, police officers being killed in New York (police officer shootings up more than 50%), mass shootings in West Virginia. These all show that the death penalty has not been a very good deterrence. "It is very clear that deterrents are not effective in the area of capital punishment," said Dr. Jonathan Groner, an associate professor of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health who researches the deterrent effect of capital punishment. "The psychological mind-set of the criminal is such that they are not able to consider consequences at the time of the crime. Most crimes are crimes of passion that are done in situations involving intense excitement or concern. People who commit these crimes are not in a normal state of mind -- they do not consider the consequences in a logical way," Groner observed. Deterrents may work in instances where the punishment is obvious and immediate, neither of which are true for the death penalty. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...) Criminals are often not in the right state of mind and cannot comprehend the consequences. If there is a bloodthirsty murderer out for blood, do you think he/she is going to stop and ask himself/herself the consequences of killing? Of course not! It"s awful, but true. Rebuttal 2 My opponent argued that mistakes happen. You are making a mistake with a human life! It is not okay to make mistakes when you"re dealing with humans. The link I gave in my first argument gave a list of 44 people whose executions got botched. I would understand one, two, maybe even three flubbed executions, but haven"t we learned from them? Apparently not, because we let more than 40 other people die in pain and torture. You hear all the time about executions being postponed because the state executioners can"t even find proper lethal drugs. Note that I am not supporting criminals. But if they have death wished upon them, in my opinion, I think they deserve to die quickly and as painlessly as possible. Final Rebuttal "The study estimates that the average cost to taxpayers for reaching a single death sentence is $3 million - $1.9 million more than the cost of a non-death penalty case" (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...) Executing prisoners costs just as much, even more, than a non-death penalty case. Prison life is not cushy. Criminals have to work, and are sentenced to solitary confinement. It is shown that the more severely a criminal is punished, the more severe he/she will become. Rehabilitation is important. We must remind the prisoners that if they reform and show that they will never commit a crime again that they can still enjoy life after prison to the fullest. Take a look at this article about a knitting group that transformed Maryland convicts: http://magazine.good.is... And one final thing: just because criminals get a free college education does not mean they will get to use it. There is a special box on job applications that says "Felon"?. And you have to check yes or no. Why do you think businesses put that question on there? Most criminals are never hired again for the rest of their lives. Spending years in prison and living a life branded as a felon for the rest of your life isn"t as "free and easy" as you think. In conclusion, the death penalty is a cruel operation that has not shown any affect on the mindsets of criminals. It is costly, and executions can be mishandled. Innocent people have been executed, and death is an easy way out for a criminal. The death penalty should be stopped in all states. Thank you.