Resolved: The Death Penalty should be abolished.

Thank you for starting this debate, and challenging me to the best of my abilities. To start off I am Con to the topic of the Death Penalty and how we should keep it for the sake of our lives for the future. Now lets get down to business, the Death Penalty has been around for years upon years, and it has helped abolish the murders and all the bad people that truly deserved the punishment. Most would think that they don't but, "If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call." John McAdams - Marquette University/Department of Political Science, on deterrence. Now that to you Pro may seem like a lousy excuse to keep the Death Penalty, but there are other multiple reasons that follow right behind the topic. "The Death Penalty deters crime and saves lives." On the website called The Heritage Foundation is where I had read an article about the Death Penalty by, David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D. "According to deterrence theory, criminals are no different from law-abiding people. Criminals "rationally maximize their own self-interest (utility) subject to constraints (prices, incomes) that they face in the marketplace and elsewhere." "Separately, Professor Shepherd's analysis of monthly data from 1977 to 1999 found three important findings. First, each execution, on average, is associated with three fewer murders. The deterred murders included both crimes of passion and murders by intimates. Second, executions deter the murder of whites and African-Americans. Each execution prevents the murder of one white person, 1.5 African-Americans, and 0.5 persons of other races. Third, shorter waits on death row are associated with increased deterrence. For each additional 2.75-year reduction in the death row wait until execution, one murder is deterred." "In summary," to this section, "the recent studies using panel data techniques have confirmed what we learned decades ago: Capital punishment does, in fact, save lives. Each additional execution appears to deter between three and 18 murders. While opponents of capital punishment allege that it is unfairly used against African-Americans, each additional execution deters the murder of 1.5 African-Americans. Further moratoria, commuted sentences, and death row removals appear to increase the incidence of murder." The strength of these findings has caused some legal scholars, originally opposed to the death penalty on moral grounds, to rethink their case. In particular, Professor Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago has commented: If the recent evidence of deterrence is shown to be correct, then opponents of capital punishment will face an uphill struggle on moral grounds. If each execution is saving lives, the harms of capital punishment would have to be very great to justify its abolition, far greater than most critics have heretofore alleged. "The United States ranked fifth for the highest number of executions. The U.S. takes a spot behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia for the most executions in the world last year, sitting ahead of Yemen and the Sudan. This ranking comes as no surprise to Brian Evans, Amnesty International's acting director on the Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, who said the same countries are in the top eight every year. (See video: "Inside Death Row.") But why is the U.S."which seems like somewhat of an outlier politically, culturally, and geographically"always in the top five? According to Evans, the U.S. has a strict attitude toward punishment in general. Having a severe attitude toward the death penalty is only natural when you consider that the U.S. leads the world in mass incarceration of prisoners and holds records for solitary confinement and sentences to life in prison." "It seems that everywhere you turn these days some special interest group is whining about the environment. An actor out in Hollywood, back in the eighties, said we'd all be gone in ten years because we're destroying our environment. Everyone seems just terrified with all this talk about global warming, the ozone, the endangered species, the rain forests and the wet lands, but they're all in an uproar about NOTHING--absolutely nothing. If you know your Bible, then you know this old planet will survive for AT LEAST another 1007 years! So, let's all relax and concentrate on something that will REALLY help the environment. Let's get serious about Capital Punishment!" How does the Death Penalty help the environment? Gods word should answer that for you, "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait, that he die; Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him." (Num. 35:16-21) "Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death." (Num. 35:30-31) Does that answer your question, Gods word over the hopeful soon Pros rebuttal to that. Now, I know that so far in my debate with the Pro that I have used mostly quotes from pretty creditable sites, but I do have a reason for that matter. I may not have that much good information to paraphrase. And some of which I will tell you. Some thing are just to good to paraphrase, so that is why I have been mostly quoting from these sites. Cited: http://www.heritage.org... http://prodeathpenalty.com... http://news.nationalgeographic.com... http://biblebelievers.com...