The death penalty should be illegal in the united states.

1. Pro concedes that the Lord is irrelevant in this debate. 2. Pro says that we are "above" the death penalty simply because it was used in ancient times as a form of punishment as well. That is a fallacious argument; this debate isn't about finding a modern punishment but rather which option best achieves justice. My opponent asked if I think that justice is better served by implementing the death penalty and my answer is yes. She then asks if it helps to "do away" with the whole situation. Uh, what? Nothing will "do away" with the whole situation (assuming the situation is murder). As I said, I'm not using the death penalty being a deterrent as an argument for my case. 3. Moving on, I asked for statistics regarding the number of people that were wrongfully put to death. Pro merely provided statistics detailing the number of people who died by the hand of the death penalty, which is irrelevant. Moreover, I already included my input regarding those who were wrongly convicted, but I'll repeat it: 4. As I said in the last round (which my opponent ignored), the continuation of point 3 noted in point 4 is as follows -- Only a handful of people actually die from the death penalty each year. There are A LOT more murders and homicides committed than the number of actual people who make it to the end of death row. In this case, we have to implement the philosophy that we should choose the approach which achieves the maximum amount of justice, even at the sacrifice of a few (Utilitarianism). Plus, as I said, with technology and other advances, our likelihood of killing an innocent person is far less than in the past. I also said that one had about 20 years to overturn a wrong conviction because it takes that long for the person to actually be put to death. Pro said that you can't overturn the conviction once someone is already dead... but like I said, they have over 20 years to get it right. Plus, Pro asks, "What makes it right for a person to have to wait 20 years to be sentenced to death?" This is a complete contradiction from her stance in this debate. On one hand, she's saying that the death penalty shouldn't exist and instead that prison alternatives should be implemented. Meanwhile, she's complaining about the killer spending time in prison instead of immediately being put to death. This also seems to conflict with the fact that a person has time to appeal a wrong conviction by spending time in prison first, instead of just being killed and then people finding out they made the wrong decision too late. 5. Pro then asks what makes taking a life the right decision. Ladies and gentlemen, all Pro is doing is copying and pasting chunks of what I wrote, and then providing a completely retarded one sentence rebuttal or asking a one sentence question at the end of it. I have given so many reasons throughout this debate of why I feel that the death penalty is "right" in the sense that it establishes justice. Since Pro merely copies and pasted all of my arguments instead of actually debating them, she should have no trouble scrolling back and reading the plethora of reasons I have provided for my reasoning. Furthermore, the "eye for an eye" concept was NOT detailed in the Constitution; it was mentioned the Bible. 6. Regarding my point about plea bargaining, Pro insists that if our system was better put together, then this wouldn't be an issue. The reality, however, is that our system isn't so well put together and the parameters of the current system are what we have to work with. Moreover, I maintain that even if the system was more efficient, it would still be a useful tool in terms of plea bargaining to save a lot of work, time, grief, money, etc. 7. I'm beginning to think that Pro needs some reading comprehension levels. Nowhere did I say that it was preferable see a family member be condemned to death instead of receiving life in prison, and that was exactly my point. Like I said in the last round, why should they and the killer and their families have the luxury of still seeing their loved ones when the deceased and their family do not? This is about the rights and privileges about the one who's left alive. The killer should not receive better or superior treatment than the victim. The victim did not choose an action that lead to their demise, while the killer did (with intent, and carried it out maliciously). This is about responsibility. I would appreciate it if Pro actually read and understood my arguments so we both didn't have to keep copy and pasting them. 8. Once again, Pro proves to be incompetent. She provides an example of someone slapping someone and then saying that the penalty shouldn't be that the original offender gets slapped back, because then it just turns into a brawl. Well as I said regarding the same punishment being given IN THE LAST ROUND (again I have to copy and paste to deal with Pro not reading what I said in the first place), we shouldn't bestow the same punishment as the crime in all cases because typically the crimes do not commit the ultimate injustice: depriving another of their right to life. If a malicious person wishes to do this, he or she must accept the consequences of the same action (or at least one with a similar result) since life is the ultimate value. 9. Next, ironically enough, despite Pro's lack of comprehension or ability to put forth a decent argument, she proceeds to insult my intelligence by saying that I don't watch a lot of TV. She's mistaken. While she's watching the Jonas Brothers accomplish nothing on the Disney Channel, I watch a lot of CNN, BBC and CSPAN. I presume to know a lot more about the law and politics than my opponent, but that's neither here nor there. The point is that I really don't care whether or not Eldred (the man from Pro's link) is having a hard time in jail because he's bored and uncomfortable. That's what you get for killing people and taking their lives. Depriving another of their right to life is the ultimate crime and injustice. As such, it deserves the most ultimate punishment. Back to Pro for now.