The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished

Before I start with my rebuttals, I would like to note that my opponent did not so much try to refute my opening arguments. This means he agrees that the death penalty does indeed lower crime rates. His response is only a summary of some of the bad things that can come along with the death penalty. In addition to this, I would like to make one statement to the viewers. The point of the death penalty is not to kill men who are guilty of horrible crimes. The point is to deter criminals from committing the crimes at all. As we can see from my opening argument and all of the studies, the death penalty works extremely well in deterring crime. Now then, onto my rebuttals. The Death Penalty and Morality I will quote my opponent on some things he said that fit under this category. Pro states, “As catholic's we believe that the death penalty is morally wrong and can never be justified. ” Religion has nothing to do with this debate. The death penalty is good for society and I have proven so through my opening argument. In fact, the death penalty is justified in the sense that is saves people’s lives through deterrence. “"But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. " Matthew 5:39 It is one of the hardest things to forgive the one who sins against you, but Jesus Christ King of King forgave the horrible things that people did to him during his Crucifixion. ”Again, religion has absolutely nothing do with this debate. However, let’s assume that you aren’t coming from a religious stand point but a philosophical stand point. Your basic point will then be to forgive others. Now I’m going to add another variable to this. What if by slapping that man across the face right after he slaps you, you save 3 people from getting slapped from that very man? That’s exactly how the death penalty works. As we can see, slapping that man right back is very beneficial to those three people. Now multiply that by the average 34 people that slap others every year, if you slap everyone of them back you just saved 102 people from getting slapped. Now that was quite an analogy. The 34 people are equal to the amount of people who get executed every year. (1) The 102 comes from the whole point about how 3 lives are saved for every person executed. “No matter how you defend or support it, capital punishment is morally wrong. To deliberately kill someone who has been captured and no longer poses a direct threat to society is murder” Man does bad, man punishes. Seems justified to me, especially when, again, you are saving innocent lives in the process. Even more to this, the person who murders is aware that they could very well receive the death penalty over what they did. As for the second sentence:Murder – “To kill (another human) unlawfully. ” (2)If you want to get technical, the death penalty isn’t unlawful at all therefore it isn’t murder. In addition, the point of capital punishment isn’t to kill a man that has already been captured and no longer poses a threat, the point is to keep people from murdering at all for their fear of death. “Capital punishment gives the government the legal right to commit first-degree murder. What kind or moral message does that send? ”Again with the morality, that does not belong in this debate. There is no proof objetive morality exists. They are aware of the punishment they can be given, if they choose to do an act that will give them the death penalty, then well, to put it simply, they asked for it. what kind of message would it send if the government banned the death penalty, and crime rates went up by 30% because of it? I’ll tell you what kind of message it will send! The message that the government doesn’t care about the people! Doesn’t care about the lives, relationships, and love being torn apart because crime-rates are so high. And worst of all, the people would know that maybe their loved ones wouldn’t have died if the death penalty still existed! Here is my answer below to your statement:The point of capital punishment isn’t to kill a man that has already been captured and no longer poses a threat, the point is to keep people from murdering at all for their fear of death. “As has been widely documented, with the shortcomings and inequities in our judicial system, the existence of the death penalty guarantees the execution of innocent people. ”First off, just because the death penalty has some kinks does not mean they can be fixed. The death penalty has already been proven to be beneficial to society, can you imagine how well the death penalty would work if all the little problems were fixed? To abolish something completely because it has a few kinks that can easily be fixed if it were just paid attention to is completely unnecessary. The death penalty simply helps more for society then it damages society. I will explain this statement further in my other rebuttals. Innocent LivesMy opponent states the following:“One of the major and irreversible flaws of capital punishment is the real possibility that an innocent person could die for a crime he or she didn't commit. ”I can’t deny that under very rare circumstances innocent people do get the death penalty. However, more lives innocent lives are saved from the death penalty than innocent lives lost because of the death penalty. As shown, 102 lives are saved on average per year because of the death penalty, but only 11 innocent people have been killed through the death penalty since 1997. Now if you do the math, by the end of 2013 about 1632 innocent lives will be saved because of the death penalty, and only about 11 will have been killed since 1997. “As of May, 124 inmates on death row in the United States had been exonerated. ”It would really help if my opponent put the year for this. Exoneration is actually good, this means that they found out the person wasn’t guilty after all and ended up releasing them before they actually died. This just proves that the death penalty doesn’t have a system that is nearly as flawed as my opponent may think. “Once a person has been executed, there can never be a chance to reverse sentences or give exonerations, even though the rising number of exonerations per year shows the need for the ability to reverse sentencing. ” True, but once the death penalty is abolished there will be no way to take back the 102 people whose lives were saved because the death penalty exists. 1632 > 11 I think it’s just a tad more beneficial to have the death penalty. The Death Penalty and Biasness“often, it's (the death penalty) because of the color of a person's skin. The death penalty is inextricably bound up with our racist and class-biased justice system and for that reason alone can never be just”This is all irrelevant to the flaws of the death penalty, what you stated only pertains to a flawed justice system. The Death penalty and Society“The death penalty is doesn't help in a civilized society. ” Did you even read my opening arguments? I personally think the death penalty helps a lot! In fact, I even gave a historical example of how abolishing the death penalty failed compared to life with the death penalty. “Since its inception, the death penalty has never produced a decrease in crime. ” LOL. WHAT. Please elaborate much further. I must be completely misunderstanding what you are saying. ConclusionMy opponent merely makes baseless assertions. Most of them are based on his own flawed opinion and simply cannot be taken into mind. I have shown the precise reasons why the death penalty is beneficial to society and my opponent has failed to not only refute my opening arguments, but has also failed to show logical reasoning as to why the death penalty should be abolished. I await my opponents response. (1) . http://www.chacha.com...(2) . http://education.yahoo.com...