Death Penalty

I will begin my arguments by rebutting my opponents' contentions prior to addressing his rebuttals of my own. 1.) A murderer should be rightly punished for his actions; the only way to do this is the death penalty. Rebuttal: Let's think of this logically; what is a worse punishment? A quick, painless death after only a few years of confinement, or your entire life spend behind bars, worried every day for your health and surroundings? United States prison conditions are rather horrific[1], making an entire life behind bars a horrible punishment. Life in a poor-quality prison is a much more powerful and punishing way of dealing with criminals compared to the death penalty. 2.) Death penalty is a painless and suffering-free way to die, especially compared to other deaths. There are numerous instances of deaths being carried out that has resulted in suffering for the prisoner. For instance, if a member of the execution team injects into a muscle rather than a vein, extreme pain can happen as a result. Those who use IV drugs tend to have damaged veins, resulting in a long period of time in search of a vein to cause an injection[2]. 3.) Death penalties give the criminal enough time to get his affairs in order. My opponent states that "death penalties take time, the court session and all can go on for years...". With this statement he accidentally raises another problem with the death penalty: death penalties take up valuable court time. Aside from that, the statement that the death penalty gives the prisoner time to get affairs straightened is one that is inaccurate. Many death row prisoners spend their days alone in their cells, with little time given to anything outside them, with that time decreasing[3]. Death row prisoners may have time to get affairs in order, but the time death row inmates have is almost never used for that purpose, and prisoners suffer greatly on death row. 4.) There is no justice in allowing the murderer to live. I refer you to my rebuttal to your first contention. Justice also means many things to many people, especially to families of victims; some may wish to kill their loved one's murderer, but others may forgive him/her. In that instance, the death penalty does not mean justice. In order to properly use this point, my opponent must properly define "justice" to something where all people must agree, which is impossible, if not highly improbable. I will now address my opponent's rebuttals to my points. 1.) Rebuttal to "The death penalty is a misuse and waste of taxpayer dollars" It may sound only logical that the death penalty is less expensive than life in prison, but there is evidence that states the contrary. For instance, in the state of California, the death penalty since 1978 has cost California more than four billion dollars. However, if the governor commuted the sentences to life without parole, it would result in an immediate savings of 170 million dollars per year. Similiar statistics can be found in a number of other states[4]. As to his remarks on the justice or injustice of life in prison, I refer to my rebuttals of my opponent's first and fourth contentions. 2.) Rebuttal to "Innocent people are too often executed" If I can satisfy my opponent's criteria (giving cases of people, wrongly executed, within the last twenty years), then this point flows to me. Some examples of innocent people executed unjustly within the past twenty years include James Lee Beathard [5], Ruben Cantu [6] and Girvies Davis [7]. These examples all fell under my opponent's twenty year request as well as the wrongful execution committed. 3.) Rebuttal to "The death penalty is applied in an unfair manner" The death penalty is often applied to people of color more often than Caucasians, as well as being based on the amount of the money the accused have, the skill of the attorneys and the location of the crime[8]. It is evident then that the death penalty is applied in an unfair manner, based on race, monetary status and geography. For these reasons, I strongly urge a ballot in negation of the resolution. Thank you. Sources: [1] http://rt.com... [2] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [3] http://abcnews.go.com... [4] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... [5] http://www.law.northwestern.edu... [6] http://www.law.northwestern.edu... [7] http://www.law.northwestern.edu... [8] http://www.aclu.org...