Capital Punishment

I will begin with my opening arguments. 1/ Death Penalty is JustWhat is "just"? According to the Oxford dictinary, "just" mean "morally right and fair" [1]. In order to have justice, any crime will be punished proportional to how serious they are. That is also exactly how the laws in every country all over the world works. Someone committing a petty crime can get away with just a fine. If his crime is more serious, he could be put into jail. Therefore, when a man commits the most atrocious acts, he should receive the highest penalty: the death punishment. This a quote of Robert Macy, District Attorney of Oklahoma City, about one of his case: "In 1991, a young mother was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need to die. " [2]What is described above is just one single case. There are many other criminals who committed more horrifying murders, and they should receive their retribution. It is not "eye for an eye". It is not revenge. It's a punishment for someone who deserves it. It is right and it is fair. So it is justice.2/ Death Penalty deters crimesPunishment makes people less likely to violate the laws and more severe punishment will deter crimes better. In a paper written by Dudley Sharp, he had shown that the criminals fear the death penalty much more than life without parole: "The most conclusive evidence that criminals fear the death penalty more than life without parole is provided by convicted capital murderers and their attorneys. 99.9% of all convicted capital murderers and their attorneys argue for life, not death, in the punishment phase of their trial". He also concluded that "which we fear the most deters the most" [3]. In one of his research in 1975, Professor Isaac Ehrlich of the University of Buffalo estimated that each execution deterred about seven or eight homicides [4]. Additional research of Professor Stephen K. Layson of the University of North Carolina has reconfirmed Professor Ehrlich's results [5]. There are also newer studies confirming the deterrence effect of death penalty. Seventeen out of twenty four studies carried out from 1996 to 2010 claim that the death penalty does deter crime [6]. For example, Professors Hashem Dezhbakhsh of Emory University and Joanna Shepherd of Clemson University, after analysing the panel data covering the fifty states from 1960 to 2000, found out that the murder rate increases when the death penalty is abolished and decreases when it is reinstated [7]. The following figure is taken from their study: As you can see, the homicide rate increases when the number of execution decreases, and vice-versa. In another study, Joana Shepherd found out that the death penalty "deters murders previously believed to be undeterrable: crimes of passion and murders by intimates" [8]. [1] . http://oxforddictionaries.com...[1] . http://prodpquotes.info...[3] "Death Penalty and Sentencing Information In the United States" (1997), Dudley Sharp[4] "The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: A Question of Life and Death," (1975), Isaac Ehrlich[5] "Homicide and Deterrence: A Reexamination of the United States Time-Series Evidence," (1985), Stephen K. Layson[6] . http://www.cjlf.org...[7] "The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: Evidence from a 'Judicial Experiment'", Hashem Dezhbakhsh and Joanna Shepherd (2003)[8] "Murders of Passion, Execution Delays, and the Deterrence of Capital Punishment", Joanna Shepherd (2003)