Capitol Punishment

.-== Pro's Case ==-. The resolution appears to be Capital punishment is just, so I'll operate under that notion until disputed by Pro. I've broken down the first two rounds into what appears to be pro's premises:P1: The victims of murder are vindicated by taking the life of the murderer. P2: The murderer should feel pain/loss that victim feltP3: Life in prison is relief from responsibilities/allows murderer happinessP4: Capital punishment is the only way for a murderer to suffer the consequences of their actions. C: Therefore, Capital punishment is just. -== Rebuttals ==-. P1: The victims of murder are vindicated by taking the life of the murderer. I could say something here but I think I'll let Elizabeth Brancato whose mother was murdered in 1979 speak. “I will admit that for some time after my mother's murder, I had angry, vengeful thoughts and wished my mother's killer dead. I thought I wanted vengeance and justice. What I really wanted was to have my mother back and to not have to think about the horror of her death. Gradually I came to believe it would dishonor my mother to kill for her sake, because if we really believe it was wrong that her life was taken, then it would also be wrong to take another life. Rather than being a way of ending violence, I see the death penalty as part of a spiral of never-ending violence. ” [1]P2: The murderer should feel pain/loss that victim feltWhy is this so? Car thiefs don't get sentenced to losing their car, rapists don't get sentenced to being raped. Criminal law is not designed to extract pain from the guilty except in this one unique circumstance. And even in the case of murder, capital punishment is far from uniformly applied. For example, a murderer is 700 times more likely to be executed in the Southern US than the West, Midwest or Northeast, yet the South only has a murder rate that is less than 1% higher than the national average [2]. Also, 96% of states that reviewed the races of the convicted vs. the victim found that when a black killed a white person they had a much higher chance of getting the death penalty [2]. P3: Life in prison is relief from responsibilities/allows murderer happinessI'm not sure where Pro got that belief from. Sure, prisoner's basic needs are met but this not much different than the welfare system. What is different than welfare provided for the poor is that prison is a tough, tough environment. I would say if Pro truly believes this then she watches too much TV. Try visiting a prison or talk to a real ex-convict (not just someone who spent the night in a holding cell for drunk and disorderly). Here's the view from the inside:"Tougher prisons don't deter crime either. They only force you to grow accustomed to a harsh environment, one that you come back to because the free world seems out of step with you. It's not fun inside here unless you are as insane as your captors which some of us are. You're either predator or prey here. There's no medium point in it because what you have to do to survive or become somebody's punk. You can project yourself as one of those guys who doesn't care about anything including yourself, but people can tell if you're faking it. It's madness in here, but you find the strength to live in it and function, or you lose your mind completely and your history. " - Robert, prisoner in California [3] "Making it harder on prisoners only makes it harder on society. Why release an angry man who was treated like an animal as opposed to releasing a carpenter or an electrician? After all, these men you want to punish more will be rejoining you in society. I can't even use a bathroom in private; what do you propose, painting the windows black? I don't know who "we" is, but you all need to ask your government why there is no emphasis on education and reform. "- Eugene, prisoner in New Jersey [3]P4: Capital punishment is the only way for a murderer to suffer the consequences of their actions. As earlier stated prison life is not easy. A life sentence without parole would a pretty severe penalty. Think about it for a minute, the average stay on death row is 169 months or 14 years, 1 month and most of these prisoners are between 30-54 so a life sentence without parole is at least double the time they would spend in prison on death row [4]. By comparison, death row would be the easier sentence, however final. .-== My Case ==-. C1: To truly value life, one must value all life. If one truly values life, then one must value all life. Value means "to consider or rate highly (e. g. prize, esteem, i. e. " [5]. Life has intrinsic value in that your life or my life's value isn't determined by anyone or anything else. It is valuable in and of itself. It is the disconnection between the intrinsic value of life that has lead many to accept that abortion should be allowed. If we allow that any life doesn't hold intrinsic value then the value will be held meaningless as applied the whole of humanity. If we allow that the retarded or poor are worth less than we cheapen all of humanity. We must uphold the value of all life by upholding the value of each individual life. C2: Capital punishment only values the victim's life. However, capital punishment puts lifes on a scale and tries to balance that the murderers life is less valuable than the victim's. Thus, capital punishment does not value all life. C3: A just society punishes criminals in a way that values life. A society that fails to uphold the value of life ultimately devalues it. The US is in the top five executors of Capital Punishment along with countries as China, Iran, North Korea, and Yemen [6]. Freedom House published a report of "Freedom in the World 2010" which listed relative freedoms of countries around the globe. With the exception of the US, all have dismal human rights records according to the report [7]. These are hardly just societies. This leaves the US as the only country that has Capital Punishment and yet supposedly respects human rights. We must become a more just society and that should be reflective in our punishments for severe crimes. I eagerly await your reply. Sources:[1] . http://www.murdervictimsfamilies.org...[2] . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[3] . http://gangsandkids.com...[4] . http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov...[5] . http://www.merriam-webster.com...[6] . http://en.wikipedia.org...[7] . http://www.ifex.org...