Death Penalty

I will proceed to make mine, then refute in the third round. I ask my opponent not to post too many rebuttals in the last round, as I have limited characters to refute them. Without further ado, let's get started! ==C1: The Cost==The cost of the death penalty is no secret. In California alone, people spend $308 million on each execution, which totals up to about $4 billion over time for only 13 executions [1][3]. In modern times, it costs about 177 million dollars more [2] yearly to have the death penalty over LWOP in California. There are 733 people in California on death row [4]. If we were to actually execute them all, it would cost us a little over $240 billion dollars. In contrast, that's more than 1/3 of the U. S military budget. If the death penalty was abolished in California, we would be able to spend the extra money on things that further deter murder, such as the police force, security, or even education. It seems inevitable that LWOP deters murders, and we could further add to that amount with the extra funds we would have. In other states, the death penalty is not widely used (take Maryland, which only has 5 inmates on death row [4]). 5 executions over time costed a staggering $186 million. They took actions to then abolish the death penalty to save these costs [5]. To sum up, it would be much cheaper to simply use LWOP instead of the death penalty. With the funds we save, we could focus on improving police force, education, benefits, etc. ==C2: Deterrent==The death penalty is not as much of a deterrent as it is advertised to be. A poll of experts revealed scary results. 88% believe it is not a deterrent [6], while 5% believe it is, and 7% have no opinion. If we need further proof that the death penalty does not deter murder or deters as less as LWOP, we can look at the state evidence. The states that use the death penalty the most have a range of 5.1-12.5 murders per 100,000 [7], while states with LWOP have a range of 1.2-7.1 murders per 100,000, significantly lower than states with the death penalty. Thus, it seems that murderers are more scared of LWOP than the death penalty. Furthermore, most deterrence studies are very unreliable, as an analysis of data showed that a minor tweaking of instruments used to record data can show results from the death penalty deters 429 murders to that the death penalty makes 86 murders happen [8]. The evidence that LWOP deters more murders than LWOP does not stop at the U. S. A. All around the globe, there is solid evidence that the death penalty does not deter as much murder as LWOP. Take a look at the quote below:“The five countries in the world with the highest homicide rates that do not impose the death penalty have nearly half the number of murders per 100 000 people than the five countries with the highest homicides rates which do impose the death penalty (United Nations Development program) [9]”There is no clear evidence that the death penalty deters more murders (or any) than LWOP. The only evidence is quotes, which really are not evidence at all. There is no refuting hard data that shows LWOP is a better deterrent than LWOP. ==C3: Innocence==It is irrefutable that once you put a man to death, there is a 0% chance he will live. It is also irrefutable that if you put an innocent man to death, there would be a 0% chance of that man being able to live the life he deserved. This both has happened and has come very close to happening. Take Jason O'dell for example. At the time he was put to death, there were serious questions regarding his guiltiness [10]. Then he was put to death, and the DNA tests were burned up afterwards. This was obviously because the U. S did not want to face an innocent execution, even though they did one. Furthermore, 144 people have been released from death row [11. ] This suggests that up to 3.5% of people on the death row are, and was, innocent. If we were to abolish the death penalty, there would be a 0% chance that an innocent man would ever get executed again. I will now go on to refuting my opponent's arguments. ==Rc1: Hemorabi got it right! ==My opponent states a quote from about 3,000 years ago as evidence. He states that since it worked in ANCIENT MESOPITAMIA, THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION, it would work today. First off, times have changed and old quotes have gotten questioned. My opponent has no credible, modern evidence that Hemorabi got it right. One way it wouldn't work today is that "you kill my family member, I kill you. " The only murder that is even justifiable is when you kill out of self defense, which is clearly not the case. I have shown that people are less scared of the chair than of LWOP, so this makes your argument false. If we ban the death penalty, we would still have LWOP, and no more murders would be committed than when we have the death penalty. My opponent has no evidence for his bold claim that "prisoners think they would rule it or escape. " If they really though that, so many crimes would be committed because each person wants a chance to escape and rule prison. In conclusion, a quote from a dead man of a civilization 3,000 years ago with no evidence is just not credible. Until my opponent shows further evidence, this argument is completely false. ==Rc2: More execution[s] made murder [rates] drop! ==This argument is really just an example of my opponent not looking far down into the data. While murder rates have dropped in states with the death penalty, they have also dropped in states without the death penalty. This suggests that the police force is to credit for this drop in murder, not the death penalty. What my opponent's graphs failed to show in the murder relation between states with the death penalty and states without the death penalty. They only show the U. S. A as a whole, assuming that the whole entire U. S. A has the death penalty (which we don't. ) Thus, your graphs are biased and not solid evidence. What Ernest Van Deg Haag said may be flawed. The death penalty statistics show that LWOP is more feared. If people feared death the most, why do people do very stupid things? Why do people commit suicide? Why do people volunteer to be in the military? His logic is flawed when he said we must continue to execute murderers if it protects society. He fails to see that LWOP deters murders also. I will have to end my arguments and rebuttals here. I eagerly await my opponent's response! Thank you! [1] . http://articles.latimes.com...[2] . http://www.motherjones.com...[3] . http://www.deathpenalty.org...[4] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[5] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[6] . http://www.amnestyusa.org...[7] . http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com...[8] "The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence. " Donohue, John and Wolfers, Justin. Vol. 1, p. 3. [9] . https://fullfact.org...[10] . http://www.aclu.org...[11] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...