The Death Penalty is a logical and practical punishment compared to life imprisonment.

I will start out with some opening arguments. Cost The average cost of defending a trial in a federal death case is $620,932, this costs around 8 times more than a trial in which the death penalty is not sought [1. ] A study[2] out of Seattle university found that each death penalty case costs an average of $1 million more than a similar case where the death penalty was no pursued. The figures come out to $3.07 million in a case pursuing the death penalty, compared to $2.01 million, for a similar case, but in which the death penalty was not sought. This study only examined cases in Washington, that that occurred since 1997. Using only these cases, the gross bill to taxpayers for the death penalty is around $120 million. Since the reinstatement of Washington's death penalty, it has carried out 5 executions, this implies a cost of around $24 million per execution. A recent study out of Nevada [3] revealed that murder cases which seek the death penalty can cost nearly twice as much as those with a lesser punishment. On average, according to the audit, a death penalty case in Nevada costs the public $1.03 million to $1.31 million. In a murder case where the death penalty is not sought, the average cost to the public is $775,000. And in Kansas, a study[4] coming from the Kansas Judicial Council examined 34 potential death penalty cases from 2004 - 2011, the study found that defending a death penalty case costs about 4 times as much as defending a similar case where the death penalty is not sought. These are three studies from different states, which agree that death penalty cases cost the public and the government much more money than non-death penalty cases. *The graph is from the Kansas study. * Capital Punishment does not prevent crime A 2009 survey of leading criminologists showed that over 88% of them believe that the death penalty is NOT a deterrent to murder[5. ] In fact, murder rates in states without the death penalty has remained lower than states with the death penalty for the last 25 years. A study also compared the US to 25 other developed countries, and it showed that the US has the highest rates of childhood homicide in the developed world. Almost all the other countries that were look at had abolished the death penalty[6. ] So it is clear, the death penalty does not deter crime. Execution of Innocents This was the reason that I first started to oppose the death penalty, before I was aware of its other shortcomings. In the USA, there have been 329 post-conviction exonerations in the history of the nation[7. ] Some of these people have been held on death row since the 80's. This here, proves that the justice system is capable of making mistakes, and is not foolproof. Also, the death penalty information centre released a list[8] of 10 executed inmates, who's cases have been reviewed, and they found enough evidence to possibly prove their innocence. But of course, most courts will not review cases in which the defendant has already been killed. In the US, there have been around 16 wrongful convictions of people which resulted in executions, then posthumously, they were declared innocent[9. ] So, this shows that the justice system in America is not foolproof, and has made many mistakes in the past. And with that, I toss the ball back to my opponent. Sources - . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... . http://www.reviewjournal.com... . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... . http://www.amnestyusa.org... . http://www.deathpenalty.org... . http://www.innocenceproject.org... . http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... . http://en.wikipedia.org...