Death Penalty

Thank you for accepting Phantom. I should have mentioned above for anyone unaware; this is a Top Tier Debate in Mikal's Debate Tournament. Onwards!DETERRENCEThe one fact that could unite both sides of this debate in support of the continuation of the Death Penalty is that the Death Penalty saves lives. Obviously the life of the person executed is not saved, but, according to an irrefutable 26 year study, each execution prevents an average of 74 murders the following year[1]. I believe most of us can see the value in trading one life (the life of a murderer at that) to save 74 more. Some people like to say that you can't put a price/value on life, but that sentiment would hardly console the families of the 74 whose murders are not deterred. Of course there may be some doubts as to the legitimacy of this study. Couldn't this just be coincidence? In the grand scheme of things 74 is a small number, after all. This possibility was taken into account, and linear analysis was done, finding that the association with the 74 year after statistic was significant at the .00003 level[1]. Another way to put that is that there is over a 34,000 to 1 chance that this is not a coincidence[1]. To clarify, linear analysis is essentially this. That graph is not from the study, it is merely a graphic example of how the calculations of coincidence were done. Basically, the homicide rates deviated so little from the average of 74 that the association was .00003. This is essential to understand. It's not like the homicide rate was all over the place and the numbers ended up averaging out to 74. Each year following an execution the number of homicides reduced was extremely close to 74. GROWING FOCUS ON PROPER JUSTICEBefore I begin my case for the shrinking possibility of innocent execution, I would like to bring to everyone's attention to the fact that only 2.82% of executions have had doubt as to their legal legitimacy[2][3][4]. And while each of those supposed wrongful executions are something most of us wouldn't want, remember that each of those executions (39)[2] brought about a significant reduction in the homicide rate, so there is some good to weigh in when considering the moral implications of murdering an innocent. Additionally, the US Supreme Court has placed a ban on the execution of the mentally retarded, and has defended against attempts to sidestep the ban[9]. Anyways!"The National Registry of Exonerations says 87 people falsely convicted of crimes were exonerated last year[2013]..."[5]This is a record high, and it follows the general trend. The National Registry of Exonerations has recorded a 22.2% rise in exonerations from 1989 to 2013[6][4]. Note that even though there are some ups and downs in the past decade, the dips are far higher than any year before 2000. Backing off of the general view, we can see that exonerations are also rising for those on death row, from 3 per year (1973-1999) to 5 per year (2000-2011)[7]. All the above information is great for the people released, but is it good for my argument? After all, one could argue that this isn't indicative of a greater focus on locating the wrongly convicted, but rather a lack of focus in the trial process. For that I have a two part rebuttal.First, the average exonerated person spends 13 years in prison[8]. So, if it were the case that there was some kind of institutional issue with wrongful convictions, those institutional problems were in the past. High exoneration rates don't necessarily mean we've been doing a bad job, but they most definitely don't mean we're doing a bad job today.But how do we know that these institutional problems do not still persist, and will not show their fruits 13 years down the line? Because of the actions being taken today. According to National Registry of Exonerations' representative Samuel Gross (Michigan Law Professor), "Police and prosecutors have become more attentive and concerned about the danger of false conviction... ...We are working harder to identify the mistakes we made years ago, and we are catching more of them."[5]His words are not unsupported, evidenced by the significant interest of police officers and prosecutors in reviving old cases. Last year, 40% of exonerations were initiated by officers or prosecutors[5]. The year before, the number was 50%[5]. The fact that the people who put the wrongly convicted behind bars are interested in correcting their mistakes should indicate to us that any institutional problems that may have been present years ago are here no longer, or at least now exist in a much smaller percentage. Further, "District attorneys in the counties containing Dallas, Chicago, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Santa Clara, Calif., are among those to recently create "conviction integrity" units. The International Association of Chiefs of Police also is pushing to reduce wrongful convictions, joined by the U.S. Justice Department and The Innocence Project, an advocacy group that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions. The association's recommendations to local departments include new guidelines for conducting photo lineups and witness interviews to reduce false confessions."[5]I believe I have shown that the increased focus on delivering proper justice should give us more confidence in our justice system. High exoneration rates today do not mean we are doing a bad job of delivering justice today, rather it means we may have done a bad job in the past. And if there continues to be high exoneration rates about 13 years down the road, that assuredly does not mean we are doing a bad job today, based on this new concern with wrongful convictions in our justice system.SUMMARYThere are other arguments I could make, but I do not support them, and they are easily refuted. So these stand as my two reasons to support the continuation of the Death Penalty. Each execution saves lives, and as time goes on, we are less and less likely to execute an innocent, an occurrence which was rare to begin with. The Death Penalty is in the interests of the greater good of American safety. Thanks for reading, yo. Sources:[1] http://online.wsj.com...[2] http://web.archive.org...[3] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[4] https://www.google.com...[5] http://www.cbsnews.com...[6] http://www.law.umich.edu...[7] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...[8] http://www.innocenceproject.org...[9] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...