Capital Punishment Should be Abolished

R1) Closure To VictimsIn this contention Con argues that Capital Punishment brings closure to victims of homicide.closure: a feeling that a bad experience (such as a divorce or the death of a family member) has ended and that you can start to live again in a calm and normal way. Merriam-WebsterThis claim is false, Capital Punishment does not bring closure to victims of homicide.“The results show a significant increase in covictim opposition to capital punishment in the nearly two decades following the ascendancy of retribution and closure as the primary justification offered for the death penalty...the findings do signal that covictims are increasingly opposed to capital punishment and do not believe that the imposition of death brings closure.”http://westerncriminology.org... Pg. 77Con’s argument is directly negated by the evidence provided.R2) It is Not PainfulHere Con makes the argument that Capital Punishment is not painful. This is entirely false. Con brings up three different methods, I will therefore explain each method separately.Electric Chair:Excecution by electric chair can result in dislocations and fractures as the victim’s limbs move violently.http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan offered a description of an execution by electric chair that he witnessed:“...the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire....Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber.”quoted in http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org...Execution by electric chair is an inhumane method of carrying out a death sentence.Hanging:“If the rope is too long, the inmate could be decapitated, and if it is too short, the strangulation could take as long as 45 minutes...instantaneous death rarely occurs. If the inmate has strong neck muscles, is very light, if the 'drop' is too short, or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur.”http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...Execution by hanging is rarely a quick death and usually ends after a long painful death.Firing Squad:“If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly.”http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...These methods have too high a chance of risk when we are talking about someone’s life. None of the methods Con proposed are in fact painless, his argument is defeated.R3) It is the Best Answer For MurderHere Con says that Capital Punishment is the only way to punish the crime, and this is how the justice system works. This is simply false; we do not punish rapists by raping them, we do not punish arsonists by burning down their houses, so I don’t see why we should punish murderers by murdering them.R4) It is FairIn this argument Con explains how the legal system gives the criminal a fair trial and the such. Yet innocents are still executed, criminals are still racially prosecuted, criminals are still inadequately represented. Look at the facts, research directly contest Con’s argument. (Look at my Round 2 statistics.)R5) It Removes a Threat To SocietyCon claims that criminals can still do crime from jail yet fails to provide any evidence of this claim. This argument is worthless until Con can provide evidence that criminals continue breaking the law from jail.R6) It WorksHere Con attempts to relate the crime-rate of Singapore and the US. The low crime rate of Singapore could be from a variety of different sources; more funding to law enforcement, less citizens, higher education, different income levels, etc.R7) JusticeIn this argument Con claims that Capital Punishment prevents the criminal from harming society in the future. Yet prison from life does the same thing, makes the criminal unable to hurt society further. The rest of the argument is about Justice which is an extension of R3, which I have already answered.ConclusionI have answered and negated each of my opponent’s arguments, therefore finishing my R3 response. This will be the last you hear of me in this debate so I would like to ask the voters to take into consideration my opponent’s lack of evidence in his arguments that would give them validity. I would also like to ask my opponent not to defend his arguments at all and merely attack mine to keep the debate fair. Thanks!