The Death Penalty should be banned in most cases in the United States

So lets get straight down to the point, we are debating if the death penalty should be illegal in a majority of cases. I am pro to this resolution. I do however affirm that the death penalty should be left open for a few cases in where it is absolutely and totally justified. Such as evidence of needless murder without a doubt. I shall now provide evidence to support my claim, that the death penalty should be banned in a majority of cases. Ineffective Deterrent. This is not just my opinion but accepted as a fact among the nations top leading criminologist. 88-89 percent of the nations top leading criminologist over the past years have all said it is an ineffective deterrent to crime. [1] " The criminologists surveyed included - 1) Fellows in the American Society of Criminology (ASC), (2) Winners of the ASC’s Sutherland Award, the highest award given by that organization for contributions to criminological theory, or (3) Presidents of the ASC between 1997 and the present. Those presidents before 1997 had been included in the prior survey. Respondents were asked to base their answers on existing empirical research, not their views on capital punishment." [1]Even as recently as 2009, the nations top criminologist of the time also said it did not act as a proper deterrent because it did not consider factors such as non capital punishments and that the idea was fundamental flawed. This survey also showed that around 88 percent of the top leading criminologist said it was also ineffective. States without the death penalty have a lower murder rate than states with the death penaltyThis is a pretty hit home fact, but through recent studies it is shown that states without the death penalty have lower murder rates than states with the death penalty. " The threat of execution at some future date is unlikely to enter the minds of those acting under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, those who are in the grip of fear or rage, those who are panicking while committing another crime (such as a robbery), or those who suffer from mental illness or mental retardation and do not fully understand the gravity of their crime. " [2]We can also see this when comparing states without the death penalty to states with it. States with the death penalty usually have a higher murder rate. See [3] Innocent Executions The death penalty is finite and absolute. If someone is tried and killed because they were to have thought to committed the crime, it is final. Some times there are cases where evidence is provided at later dates that shows the person convicted was in fact innocent. " Since Innocence and the Death Penalty: Assessing The Danger of Mistaken Executions was released in 1993, 21 more cases have been added to the list of mistaken convictions in capital cases. Seventeen of those releases occurred after the original report's release, and the other four were cases which would have been included in the original report had the information about these releases been known earlier " [4]Right to lifeAs promised by the Constitution, we are promised the right to life [5]. There are situations that trump this such as self defense and justifiable homicide. If you are ever put into a situation where murdering someone is the only option to save your life or the life of the other under most state statues we are allotted the right under stand your ground laws [6]I have even made this case for abortion in some circumstances. Any instance where someone or something is going to kill you, you have the right to defend yourself under US law by lethal means. This does not apply in this situation. The act has already been committed, and we are applying old logic to get retribution. Murdering someone because they murdered someone is ending a life without need. Killing them will not bring the other person back, and they are other options such as deportation and life imprisonment that offers and provides the same results as far as keeping that person from killing again. We are essentially invoking the code of Hammurabi, eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth and applying it to a modern criminal justice system. ConclusionThe death penalty does not act as a proper deterrent as stated by the nations leading criminologist of both modern time and throughout history. It can kill the wrong people and is a violation of their right to life as promised by the Constitution. We can even see that states without the death penalty have less murder rates than states with the death penalty. Both statistics, studies, and experts all agree that it is an outdated practice and does not do what it needs to do effectively. [1] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[2] http://www.amnestyusa.org...[3] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[4] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[5] http://www.constitution.org...[6] http://en.wikipedia.org...