Capital punishment in Texas is unjust

Resolved: Capital punishment in Texas is unjust. I affirm this resolution. My value for this debate will be morality. My criterion for this debate will be the amount of innocent executed, and the amount of guilty executed. "It is becoming increasingly evident that those who are leery of the death penalty have reason for skepticism." I will now present some definitions for clarity. Please note all definitions will be cited from dictionary.com. Capital punishment is defined as punishment by death for a crime; death penalty. Unjust is defined as not just; lacking in justice or fairness. Contention 1: Texas executes the innocent. -The death penalty is riddled with errors, leading to the execution of innocents. Events of the past year have convinced us that the defendants have been executed on the basis of invalid evidence. The fact that we convicted people based on faulty evidence-that we have executed the innocent. The high number of death row prisoners eventually exonerated makes a strong case that other innocent but less fortunate prisoners have been wrongfully put to death. -The death penalty involves a high risk of executing the innocent. The accumulating evidence indicates that the current application of the death penalty involves an unacceptably high risk of killing innocent people. Yet even as the evidence of false convictions and wrongful executions piles up, only the participants at the base of the criminal justice system, jury members, seem to hold nothing in correcting this issue. Contention 2: Capital punishment does not deter crime. -The death penalty has no deterrent effects on crime. Death penalty support in law-enforcement comes from a deeply held conviction by police officers that it is a deterrent. Demagogues exploit the fear of crime in the community and use their support of capital punishment as a badge of honor. The death penalty has no deterrent effect on crime. Capital punishment fails to deter those who commit crimes of passion. Capital punishment also has no dissuading power over criminals who are opportunistic, calculating, or overcome by drugs. -Capital punishment won't deter many murderers. The majority of the justices, after reviewing the evidence, concluded, "Statistical attempts to evaluate the worth of the death penalty as a deterrent to crimes by potential offenders have occasioned a great deal of debate. The results have simply been inconclusive." This may be because whatever deterrence factor exists for capital punishment is probable to exist equally for life imprisonment. Contention 3: Life in prison is just. -Life in prison is the best alternative. An effective alternative to the death penalty exists. Life in prison without parole is moral, practical, and much less expensive that the complicated process that leads to the death chamber. With life imprisonment, the cold-blooded murderer is removed from society and immediately forgotten, so that all attention can turn to the victim and their needs. Anyone can be a reactionary and demand blood; it takes enormous courage to forgive the depraved who have caused such pain and sorrow. -Life in prison provides adequate response. "Wrongdoers deserve to be punished." By itself, this principle provides no defense of the death penalty, it is fully satisfied by a lesser punishment, such as imprisonment. The proposition that "murderers deserve to die" obviously is in favor of supporting the death penalty, but it does so by essentially begging the question. Why do murderers deserve to die when thieves do not deserved to be thieved upon? Why do murderers deserve to die when we haven't the faintest idea what punishment traitors or embezzlers or kidnappers deserve? Retribution considerations rightly tell us who deserve to be punished-it id the guilty. But it does not tell us what their manner of punishment ought to be. Relying on some version of lex talionis is of no help in building systematic and comprehensive schedule of punishments for crimes. -Conclusion In conclusion, I have efficiently shown why in Texas capital punishment is unjust.