Novice's Debate Competition R1: The Death Penalty Shouldn't Be Used

Rebuttals Argument 1- Millions to kill people? Seriously 2.4 million dollars for an average death penalty? Broke bottom people are killing people every day for free. There seems to be some suppressed evidence in you argument, Let’s break it down.Every article that I can find concerning your argument attacks due process in the United States.[1] Due process is higher because the requirements for court hearings include a federal court prosecution, two complete trials, and an automatic federal appeal [2].[1] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[2]http://www.uscourts.gov...Your argument is an attack on the protection measures given to the criminal not the actual death penalty. This is America, we protect people from being convicted and punished unjustly with the 5th Amendment and the 14th Amendment. Because this is America and we have a due process law it will now be easier for me to refute your future arguments with my now greater knowledge of the limited death penalty use and the knowledge of humane restrictions that make the death penalty a micro punishment of the overall justice system.The actual cost of Pentobarbital[3], also known by the name of the only company that manufactures it, Nembutal, which is used for lethal injections in Texas and Ohio, costs about $1400 and Seconal which is used for assisted euthanasia in Oregan costs about $125[4]. Sodium thiopental which was previously used as a standalone drug in Ohio costs $218. There has been a recent spike in the price of Nembutal now costing over $2,000 for a single 5 gram injection [5]. Lethal injection is the most expensive cost of execution that I find therefore, it is certainly not the execution that costs millions of dollars. [3] http://www.unmc.edu...[4] http://www.slate.com...[5] http://www.businessweek.com...No one ever said that giving a person a fair trial would be cheap or easy. I would like to see a more consistent implementation and commitment to Capital Punishment, but that is wishful thinking and not part of our debate, neither is a proper reform of the justice system that regulates the death penalty, protects criminals, and prevents a more widespread implementation of Capital Punishment. Argument 2 Convicts could be innocent, yes. But as you rightly point out, the likely hood is less than 1%. 0.897226753670473% or 0.9% if you want to round. Even in micro population of individuals assigned to the death penalty, each and every one received a trial with a 100% unanimous guilty vote from a jury. I would like you further refute your own claims with accurate information as you did on this argument in the future, it certainly makes the debate easier for me. Argument 3 88% of who gives a darn have an opinion. Hooray for them. Since another crime committed by a dead person is speculative, let’s look at real data from real repeat offenders 1.2% of people who have been in prison for Homicide commit another Homicide within 3 years [6]. WOW! That’s more than all of the innocent people put to death since 1975. 33% of People who commited a felony homicide committed new violent or drug crime after being released from prison according to this case study from New Jersey [7]. The evidence is in total contradiction to what some random group of people may or may not think. [6] http://www.bjs.gov...[7] http://nj.gov... My own argument for the Death Penalty (1)It costs more to house the 140,610[8] inmates with a life expectancy of 75 years who become eligiable for parole after they meet the age criteria than it does to house the 3,125 [9] with average time to execution being about 14 years and 10 months way up from the 1984 rate of about 6 years and 2 months [10]. The New York times claims that the average cost per year to house an inmate is $31,286/year and the yearly price tag for the 40 participating states was $39 billion. Do the math and you will see that your paltry $3 billion since 1976 is nothing in comparison. [8] http://www.nytimes.com...[9] http://www.hlntv.com...[10] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... (2)The death penalty in the United States is primarily reserved for murder cases with aggravating circumstances [11]. This means that just killing someone doesn’t warrant the death penalty. The majority of death row inmates committed some sort of psychotic act along with the Murder, such as dismembering body parts, raping the individual (adult or child) before, after, and sometimes during the murder, planning the murder as part of a conspiracy or for money, hiding the murder victim, racial hate crimes, involved torture, kidnapped the victim [12]. If you ask me for my opinion, (which you did) the death penalty should be more widely used for heinous, atrocious, cruel or depraved crimes even when they don’t involve murder. [11] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[12] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... (3) Recidivism is not a factor of Death Row inmates. Committing another crime in society is not a possibility for Death Row inmates and likely hood of recidivism can be determined by the circumstances of the crime [4]. 25 states actually have a sort of encouragement policy that people who are incarcerated when they commit a capital crime can shorten their sentence to the Death Penalty [12]. (4) Society has an obligation to protect its members from harm At least it does according the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948. Article 3 states that Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. And Article 5 states that No one shall be subjected to cruel or degrading punishment. It is important that society remove from the population individuals that would cause harm. The criminal having first committed the violation of human rights agrees to his own behavior and agrees that his own right to life, liberty and security of person is under the same jurisdiction that he imposed on his victim. Death is inevitable for everyone, it should not be imposed on those who celebrate life. A person who agrees to the death of another agrees to his own death in the same manner. If it isn’t hard for us to make the final decision on someone else’s life, we aren’t human but we shouldn’t allow those people who have taken lives inexplicably the same rights to life that those of us have who appreciate it.