PRESENTATION OUTLINE
At the end of this speech I would like the audience to believe that the death penalty is bad and that the government should do away with it
Opposing arguments
It's not always cruel
It's what all criminals fear
It provides closer for victims
It's the ultimate warning
It's the best answer for murder
It teaches the condemned nothing
It's hypocritical
It's always cruel
Prison is hell on earth
Society may protect its self with out putting a human to death like a wild animal sense we believe people have a soul and are capable of achieving salvation - Kofi Annan
You can't reconcile being pro-life on abortian and pro-death on the death penalty .
As long as you have capital punishment there is no guarantee that innocent people won't die
•Since 1973, over 140 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. (Staff Report, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights, Oct. 1993, with updates from DPIC).
• From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3 exonerations per year. From 2000-2011, there was an average of 5 exonerations per year.
• Jurors in Washington state are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case. (Prof. K. Beckett, Univ. of Washington, 2014).
• In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for those whose victim was black. (Pierce & Radelet, Louisiana Law Review, 2011).
• A study in California found that those who killed whites where over 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks and over 4 times more likely tha…
Defense costs for death penalty trials in Kansas averaged about $400,000 per case, compared to $100,000 per case
when the death penalty was not sought. (Kansas Judicial Council, 2014).
• A new study in California revealed that the cost of the death penalty in the state has been over $4 billion since 1978. Study considered pre-trial and trial costs, costs of automatic appeals and state habeas corpus petitions, costs of federal habeas corpus appeals, and costs of incarceration on death row. (Alarcon & Mitchell, 2011).
• In Maryland, an average death penalty case resulting in a death sentence costs approximately $3 million. The eventual costs to Maryland taxpayers for cases pursued 1978-1999 will be $186 million. Five executions have resulted. (Urban Institute, 2008).
• Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 executions Florida had carried out since 1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution. (Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000).
• The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of sentencing murderers to life imprisonment. The majority of those costs occur at the trial level. (Duke University, May 1993).
• In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992).
