The Death Penalty Should be Abolished!

1. The Death Penalty is Justified, but not entirely fair....The Death Penalty has a good reason for its legality. It wants to punish the murderer in a way that never allows them to kill again. But think about it. If it's one for one life, yes, surely it is fair. But what about mass murderers? They're either insane or want to die anyways. Killing them would be an award, not a punishment. If we kept them alive, torturing them with boredom, terrible food, treatment, and extremely little ways to escape, then THAT would be a much better punishment than the Death Penalty.2. Death Penalty costs much more than life sentence...and takes much longerDeath penalty costs "$186 million more than what those cases would have cost had the death penalty not existed as a punishment. " [1] Furthermore, "North Carolina could save $11 million annually if it dropped the death penalty." In fact, the most complete study on the death penalty shows that each execution costs (North Carolina) $2.16 million more than each life-time imprisonment. [2] Take into account that within trials it also costs much more, as in Indiana, it costs more than 10 times as much as life parole. Source [1] also tells us that the death penalty costs up to $449,887 in the average case, while life-sentence costs only $42,658. It also takes much longer than life-without-parole....in fact, it takes SIX TIMES LONGER on average as found in a study within colorado. [3] These cases take so darn long, they take more than 4 calendar years longer!! [3] We need not waste time on death-penalty cases. Just give these people a life sentence.3. The Death Penalty can kill innocent people.....foreverWhat if there happens to be a break in the case one year after the execution? Then, you cannot go back. You cannot say "I'm sorry, I release you", as you could in a life sentence. Seriously. The death penalty is really unfair in some cases, as source [4]'s graph shows, these innocently killings do indeed happen. And although they might not add up to too much, this still shows how unfair the Death Penalty is. At least you can release these people any time you find a dramatic break through, and even if they might only have 5 years more to serve, the less the better. And keep in mind at least these people can live these 5 years normally. 4. Even more unfairness within discriminationIt has been found that an insanely large amount of the majority victims of those who were murdered were white. [5] Although this might seem normal, these cases are very unfair against African-Americans. The American Bar Associator reported in 2007 that "one-third of African-American death row inmates in Philadelphia would have received sentences of life imprisonment if they had not been African-American." [6] Furthermore, a 2003 study from the University of Maryland shows that "prosecutors are more likely to seek a death sentence when the race of the victim is white and are less likely to seek a death sentence when the victim is African-American." [7] Finally, a study by the University of Yale shows that these African-Americans are far more criticized and worse treated, as "African-American defendants receive the death penalty at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victims are white." [8] All of this just shows how unfair the death penalty is. (And yes, I'm aware sources [6], [7] and [8] can all be found within source [5]. I just love using sources! And besides, what if source [5] is striked to be incorrect? Then I have 3 other sources to back it up. :P) 5. We are already losing way too much peopleJust counting the worst war of all, World War II, the world has lost 58 million people in total, with 300,000 American deaths. And with a total estimation, 82 million american soldiers have died within all the major wars. [9] And not only that, 2,515,458 people have been found to die by sickness. [10] We can't afford to lose more people to the Death Penalty. Which leads to my argument concerning.... 6. Low cost labor Not only can we punish those people with life-sentence, we can force them to labor at a low cost. This way, the courts can earn back some of the money spent on the trials and the imprisonment. These low-cost force labors can actually give companies benefits, especially during times of high unemployment, as a new source [11] shows us, prison labor indeed works out. In addition, source [12] shows that prison labor helps reform those crime-doers, so we could possibly even release them early from their life-sentences if they have really really good behavior, or punish them less and allow them to have perhaps better food or a cleaner cell. In fact, prison labor is so effective that the executive director of Maryland Correctional Enterprises claims that these laboring in-mates return to prison half as often as those who don't work in prisons. (also from source [12].) 7. It is religiously wrong Many religious people as well as organizations have published many works that show the Death Penalty against faith, and against religion. [13] In fact, the Presbyterian Church said in 1959, "the use of the death penalty tends to brutalize the society that condones it." [14] Furthermore, the testaments are outdated. We have already eliminated the death penalty for homosexuality, pre-marital sex, adultery, blasphemy, etc, etc. We should eliminate the death penalty for murder as well. It's simply wrong, violence to dissolve violence. Not only that, a Quaker group also does not support the death penalty, and for a very good reason: the death penalty lowers the value of human life and supports the proposition in the need of revenge. As the Quaker group says, "(It) violates our belief in the human capacity for change....[It] powerfully reinforces the idea that killing can be a proper way of responding to those who have wronged us. We do not believe that reinforcement of that idea can lead to healthier and safer communities." [14] The evidence above all show that the Death Penalty is widely unsupported, especially by religion and religious people. We should abolish the death penalty.8. Death Penalty is ineffective Year 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Murder Rate in Death Penalty States* 9.94 9.51 9.69 9.23 8.59 7.72 7.09 6.51 5.86 5.70 5.82 5.82 5.91 5.71 5.87 5.90 5.83 5.72 5.26 5.00 4.89 Murder Rate in Non-death Penalty States 9.27 8.63 8.81 7.88 6.78 5.37 5.00 4.61 4.59 4.25 4.25 4.27 4.10 4.02 4.03 4.22 4.10 4.05 3.90 4.01 4.13 Percent Difference 7% 10% 10% 17% 27% 44% 42% 41% 28% 35% 37% 36% 44% 42% 46% 40% 42% 41% 35% 25% 18% See chart above. From [15] In conclusion.... -Death penalty is morally unfair -Death penalty is biased and discriminatory -Death penalty costs way too much -Death penalty= more deaths; we have too much deaths already -We can use low-cost labor to earn money AND reform the prisoners! What could be better? -The Death Penalty is widely against religion and many religious groups. -Death penalty is ineffective Onto you, Uchi. Let's see what you have to say. [1] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[2] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[3] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[4] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[5] http://www.amnestyusa.org...[6] http://v.gd...[7] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[8] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[9] http://scienceline.ucsb.edu...[10] http://www.cdc.gov...[11] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...[12] http://v.gd...[13] http://www.deathpenalty.org...[14] http://fcnl.org...[15] http://v.gd...