Should the death penalty be abolished

Hello everyone, and good luck to my opponent. Introduction The death penalty, long acclaimed as a good form of punishment, starting from the ancient empires to the medieval times, is now one of the more controversial topics in the United States. It has been banned in many countries all over the globe [1], but still exists in the United States. But its continued existence serves no purpose and only continues to hurt our criminal justice system and our country as whole. Because of this, I take the position that the death penalty should indeed be abolished for the following three reasons: cost, discrimination, and wrongful convictions. The cost of the death penalty cases is significantly greater than non-capital cases. According to a report done by "Seattle University criminal justice professors Peter A. Collins and Matthew J. Hickman and law professor Robert C. Boruchowitz.....on average, Oklahoma capital cases cost 3.2 times more than non-capital cases" After considering all the factors, the researchers concluded "It is a simple fact that seeking the death penalty is more expensive. There is not one credible study, to our knowledge, that presents evidence to the contrary." [2] This report took into consideration 15 state studies studying the cost of death penalty cases between 2000 and 2016 versus cases not seeking the death penalty with similar charges involved, an adequate sample size and variety of cases. And for perspective, the average death penalty case costs 3 million dollars[3]. The evidence presented here clearly proves that the death penalty is more expensive. The con may say that prosecutors don't have to pursue the death penalty. But not only is it a lot more expensive, it also discriminates against minority groups, especially against African Americans. "Our death row population is more than 40% black", three times the amount of African Americans in the United States population"[4] We can see from this that African Americans are being unfairly discriminated and are more likely to receive the death penalty. And the end result of this racism is death, meaning that we are disproportionately putting African Americans to death with the death penalty, a practice that is clearly discriminatory and damaging. Finally, the death penalty is leading to innocent people being unfairly killed by the death penalty. Even when it is required by law for all 12 juries to agree beyond a reasonable doubt that the person is guilty, mistakes in our criminal justice system happen all the time. "On death row, 1 in 25 are likely innocent, according to a recent study." [5]. This may not seem a lot, but considering the fact that 1473 people have been executed since 1976, that means around 60 innocent people have been killed from death row. Now, abolishing the death penalty wouldn't prevent wrongful convictions, but in other cases, once it has been discovered that a person has been wrongfully convicted, they are exonerated. Yet you can't exonerate someone who is dead. Because of all these reasons, the massive cost, the racism present, and the innocent people killed, the death penalty clearly must be abolished. Sources [1] - https://deathpenaltyinfo.org... [2] - https://deathpenaltyinfo.org... [3] - https://www.amnestyusa.org... [4] - https://deathpenalty.procon.org... [5] - https://www.huffingtonpost.com...