Capital punishment is a flawed system

-I will now form rebuttals to my opponent's arguments and further extrapolate on a couple of my points. Contention 1: -As I explained in the previous round, the costs of a trial in which the death penalty is the intended sentence greatly exceeds one in which life without parole is the intended sentence. The authors concluded that the cost of the death penalty in California has totaled over $4 billion since 1978: "$1.94 billion--Pre-Trial and Trial Costs "$925 million--Automatic Appeals and State Habeas Corpus Petitions "$775 million--Federal Habeas Corpus Appeals "$1 billion--Costs of Incarceration The authors calculated that, if the Governor commuted the sentences of those remaining on death row to life without parole, it would result in an immediate savings of $170 million per year, with a savings of $5 billion over the next 20 years. " -The death penalty is by no means financially efficient or cost effective. The expenditures of all the processes listed above are exponentially higher than they would be for a trial with a lesser sentence. -Your use of words such as "just" and "flexibility" to describe the punishment and the prosecutors ability to achieve the desired sentence respectively are unsubstantiated claims. You provide no statistical data nor do you provide any empirical evidence to support your assertions. Contention 2: -Again, as I described in the previous round capital punishment does not serve as a deterrent. Crime would, by no means, run "rampant" as you said in your argument. I will provide more statistics that were not presented in the last round to further support my contention. Year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Murder Rate in Death Penalty States* 9.5| 9.94 | 9.51 | 9.69 | 9.23 | 8.59 | 7.72 | 7.09 | 6.51 | 5.86 | 5.70 | 5.82 | 5.82 | 5.91 | 5.71 | 5.87 | 5.9 Murder Rate in Non-death Penalty States 9.16| 9.27 | 8.63 | 8.81 | 7.88 | 6.78 | 5.37 | 5.00 | 4.61 | 4.59 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.27 | 4.10 | 4.02 | 4.03 | 4.22 Percent Difference 4% | 7% | 10% | 10% | 17% | 27% | 44% | 42% | 41% | 28% | 35% | 37% | 36% | 44% | 42% | 46% | 40% . http://www.deathpenalty.org... -As this data shows, the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent. In contrast, states without the death penalty have lower murder rates than states that possess the death penalty. Contention 3: "Justice is better served" -Why is this "eye for an eye" policy that pervades the minds of conservative fundamentalists morally acceptable? The "most fundamental principle of justice" should not be reciprocal punishment. By that logic a rapist should be raped in number the amount of victims that suffered under his brutality. If a man beats his wife, should he be beaten repeatedly by law enforcement? -Punishment should operate to rehabilitate the criminal; it's not pragmatic to condemn a man to death for a crime when he could possibly be resurrected from the misery and contempt that surrounds him. This eye for an eye policy does nothing to benefit of society, instead it creates an expensive system that does no justice to the criminal. The victim should be honored and remembered by allowing the individual who victimized him to contribute positively to society. Contention 4: -I already expounded upon this in my previous rebuttal. My opinion and your opinion of justice differs greatly; justice should not be focused solely upon the victim, instead it should be counterbalanced by an attempt to rehabilitate the perpetrator. I do believe that justice needs to be served, but not in the manner in which you propose. -Another thing I wish to point out, you make claims such as "Our justice system shows more sympathy for criminals than it does victims" and "a person who's on death row has almost always committed crimes before this. " that are not supported by anything attestable to observation. Your claims are based off of opinion and personal belief rather than anything I can perceive to be true. Why capital punishment is cruel and unusual punishment: -The act of lethal injection is, in today's modern society, the most common form of execution. "Lethal injection is now virtually the universal method of execution in the United States, with all of the 43 executions carried out during 2011 being by this method. Of the 1,279 executions in the USA to the end of 2011, 1,103 have been by lethal injection, including those of ten women. . http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org... -The excruciating pain and untested nature of the new cocktails most assuredly qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. The torment and agony that these individuals are subjected to should be abolished in order to remain in accordance with the 8th amendment. "The executioner, usually a person injecting the drugs manually (lethal injection machines are no longer in widespread use due to the possibility of mechanical failure), injects three drugs in sequence: 1. 1.5g Pentothol (sodium thiopental), which is intended to induce a coma. 2.100mg Pavulon (pancuronium bromide), which causes paralysis. 3.100 mEq potassium chloride, which stops the heart. " "Pentothol does not always induce a coma, leaving the disturbing possibility that at least some prisoners killed by lethal injection may experience extreme pain due to the administration of potassium chloride--without any means of expressing that pain, thanks to the paralysis brought about by the Pavulon. For this reason, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Hill v. Crosby (2006) that death row prisoners may challenge lethal injection procedures under the Eighth Amendment. " . http://civilliberty.about.com... "Lethal injection can cause excruciating pain. Since the first lethal injection on December 7, 1982, over 1,000 prisoners in the USA have been executed by this method and it has all but replaced other methods of execution. In the USA, a number of lethal injection executions have been botched. Some executions have lasted between 20 minutes to over an hour and prisoners have been seen gasping for air, grimacing and convulsing during executions. Autopsies have shown severe, foot long chemical burns to the skin and needles have been found in soft tissue. " . http://www.amnestyusa.org... -Lethal injection also requires the attendance of medical professionals. This requirement directly violates the long-established Hippocratic Oath that has served as a model of medical practice for ages. "Lethal injection was designed to prevent many of the disturbing images associated with other forms of execution. However, lethal injection increases the risk that medical personnel will be involved in killing for the state, in breach of long-standing principles of medical ethics. Virtually all codes of professional ethics which consider the death penalty oppose health professional participation. Despite this, health professionals are required by law in many death penalty states to assist executions and in some cases have carried out the killings. " . http://www.amnestyusa.org... -Justice should be served in the form of containment and attempted rehabilitation. The possibility of transforming a vile, culpable criminal into a productive member of society triumphs over death for mere "retribution" or "deterrence". I realize the possibility for failure exists; however, life within the confines of a prison, with the potential to never see the outside world again, serves a more humane and just form of punishment. . http://deathpenalty.procon.org... -The following presents a proposed plan that effectively conveys my beliefs regarding the treatment of criminals. National Research Has Identified Several Best Practices for Inmate Rehabilitation: Correctional agencies should assess inmates" needs using validated risk and needs assessment instruments: Correctional agencies should assess inmates" criminogenic needs using validated risk and needs assessment instruments. This assessment should identify inmates who have a high risk to recidivate and each offender"s rehabilitative needs so that an agency can direct its resources to offenders with the highest risk. Correctional agencies should focus programs on inmate attributes directly related to criminal behavior: Rehabilitative services should target offender attributes that are directly related to criminal behavior, such as substance abuse, criminal thinking, and lack of education. Correctional agencies should develop individualized release plans to facilitate offender reentry into society: Correctional agencies should develop individualized release plans that identify the basic support services the inmate needs after release, such as housing and transportation, and provide strategies for accessing these services. Correctional agencies should evaluate rehabilitative programs and provider performance: Correctional agencies should collect inmate-specific data on program participation and use this information to measure and regularly report on program performance, including program completion rates, intermediate outcomes (e. g. , earning a general education development diploma), long-term outcomes (e. g. , recidivism rate, employment success), and cost-effectiveness. Agencies should also hold providers of rehabilitative programs accountable for client outcomes and regularly report provider performance to the state legislatures. Source: OPPAGA analysis of national research focusing on correctional rehabilitative program practice.