The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished

Refutations I will attack my opponents attempts to support her contentions C1: Deterrence This graph [1] shows murder rates in death penalty states and murder rates in non-death penalty states. As you can see the death penalty states have a higher murder rate than states that don't have the death penalty. This graph [2] also shows the murder rate in death penalty and non-death penalty states, but this graph goes into more detail and shows the murder rate in each individual state. You can see that the murder rates in non-death penalty states exceed the murder rate in death penalty states quite drastically. Lastly, this graph [3] shows the comparison between death penalty states that neighbor non-death penalty states. These states include Iowa and Missouri, Massachusetts and Connecticut, Wisconsin and Illinois, and west Virginia and Virginia. Once again, the murder rate in death penalty states exceed states without the death penalty. Furthermore, once again, many criminologists accept that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent to the death penalty. This pie chart [4] shows how many criminologists accept that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent to crime, both in 1996 and 2008. The orange shows how many criminologists agree that the death penalty deters crime, the purple shows how many criminologists accept that the death penalty does not deter crime, while the gray is the amount who have no opinions. The majority of criminologists accept that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent. C2: Bargaining Chip Using the death penalty as a threat for use as a bargaining chip can have several negative consequences. [5] Using death penalty as a threat of death to a defendant to acquire a plea bargain forces many defendantsinto giving up their right to a trial. Any defendant who does not have a competent legal representation many times is forced to give up their constitutional rights of a due process in hopes of ending up with a less harsh punishment. The thought of execution can frighten people to take the blame for crimes or murders they did not commit C3: Accuracy The inventor of DNA fingerprint testing warns that DNA fingerprint testing is inaccurate. [6] The scientist that created DNA fingerprinting tells that it could contain mistakes and can lead to miscarriages of justice. There is over 2.5 million criminals in the national database. The system uses ten markers and there is a large percentage of getting a false match. C4: Popularity In this bar graph [7] 33% of people who participated in this survey say that death penalty is a suitable punishment for murder. While 67% said that other punishments for murder would be suitable, having a 39% in favor of life without parole and restitution, 13% in favor of life without parole, 9% favor life with parole, while 6% favor DK/Ref. Obviously the majority of people support other methods of punishment for murder than the death penalty. Rebuttals I will support my contentions. C1: Life in Prison The homicide rate in prisons is actually decreasing. In 1980 the homicide rate was above 50% while it started to decrease and in 2000 the homicide rate was below 10%. [8] “Murder in state prisons fell by more than 90% from 1980 to 2002. .. ” [9] C2: Risk of Innocent lives The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) estimates every one in seven people are wrongfully executed by the death penalty. This is estimated to be 14%. This would mean that 840,000,000 innocent people are executed. Sources [1] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[2] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[3] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[4] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[5] . http://www.deathpenalty.org...[6] . http://www.independent.co.uk...[7] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[8] . http://www.bjs.gov...[9] . http://news.bbc.co.uk...