This house would abolish the death peanlty in the United States

As promised, here are my own contentions. C1: The death penalty deters crime. The state has a responsibility to protect the lives of innocent citizens, and enacting the death penalty will save lives by reducing the rate of violent crime. The reasoning here is simple - fear of execution can play a powerful motivating role in convincing potential murderers not to carry out their acts. While the prospect of life in prison may be frightening, death is a much more daunting prospect. Thus, the risk of execution can change the mind of murderers - to be so that the act is no longer worthwhile for them. (David Muhlhausen, The Death Penalty Deters Crime and Saves Lives) Numerous studies support this idea. One study looked at over 3,054 counties over a period of more than two decades, found that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise. Another study conducted in 1985 by Stephen K. Layson at the University of California concluded that just a single execution deters 18 murders. Judge, you don"t need to calculate how many lives that saves, because we have. 1 execution deters 18 murders, based on our previous evidence, and according to information from the Death Penalty Information Center, 28 people died from the death sentence in 2015. If you do some simple math, 28 times 18 is 504. This means that approximately 504 murders were stopped simply because of the death penalty deterring crime in just 2015. So, to conclude this contention, the death penalty deters crimes and saves hundreds of lives per year. C2: The DP prevents the accused from committing further crime. Subpoint A - Recidivism. Often times, many criminals come back into society, only to kill again. This is called recidivism. An example of this is Andrew Dawson, self proclaimed "Angel of Mercy", who originally went to jail for stabbing 91 year old Henry Walsh in 1982. In 2010 he was released, and within just a couple weeks, he stabbed neighbors John Matthews and Paul Hancock when they were defenseless, leaving their bodies in bathtubs. Things like this actually happen more than one would think. Statistics from the Bureau of Justice show that despite journalism claims to be the contrary, recidivism rates are actually fairly high, coming in at 51.2% re-arrest rates for people whose greatest crime was murder. The death penalty can stop this, making murderers unable to end more innocent life. Another example of this is Kenneth McDuff. He had killed 3 young adults with an accomplice. The accomplice had then given up, and confessed. Kenneth was sent to life in prison, but was later released. After being released, he killed 9 more people. The death penalty ensures a complete 0% rate of recidivism, since it is impossible to commit a crime after death. Thus, the death penalty would prevent this from ever happening. Subpoint B - Further crimes in prison. While in prison, it is not uncommon for prisoners to commit homicide, suicide as well as rape or other crimes while in jail, because there is no worse punishment they can receive than something like life in jail. Putting dangerous criminals in jail just endangers the other inmates and the guards who watch them. The only way to make sure a criminal doesn"t harm any other innocent people is to subject them to the death penalty. C3: The Death Penalty brings justice to the deserving and keeps communities aware. When someone takes a life, the balance of justice is disturbed. Unless that balance is restored, society succumbs to a rule of violence. Only the taking of the murderer's life restores the balance and allows society to show convincingly that murder is an intolerable crime which will be punished. If we allow murderers to continue living such as in the case of life without parole, what we are doing is wasting taxpayer money to feed people responsible for the deaths of men, women, and children. J. Budziszewski, Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of Texas, further explains this. "Society is justly ordered when each person receives what is due to him. Crime disturbs this just order, for the criminal takes from people their lives, peace, liberties, and worldly goods in order to give himself undeserved benefits. Deserved punishment protects society morally by restoring this just order, making the wrongdoer pay a price equivalent to the harm he has done. This is retribution, not to be confused with revenge, which is guided by a different motive. In retribution the spur is the virtue of indignation, which answers injury with injury for public good. .. Rehabilitation, protection, and deterrence have a lesser status in punishment than retribution. " So, the best way to maintain a fair and just country while also preserving peace and keeping communities aware of the problem that is murder is by using the death penalty. Good luck to my opponent, thank you!