Persuasive Speech Outline
07/18/17
Capital Punishment is a Crime Introduction
I. Attention Getter: With the United states in debt up to nineteen trillion and states facing budget cuts, a million dollars is a lot of money to spend to give one person the death penalty. While some people may agree with the death penalty, others may not. Some people feel that locking a criminal in prison for their life will keep the world safe, while other, believe that giving them the death penalty will deter other people from committing the crime.
II. Relevance link: While studies show that states without the death penalty have a lower crime rate, no one can be certain that it does
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Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate.” With that being said no one is aware if capital punishment is deterring crime from any state.
B. Subpoint:
1. Sub-subpoint: {refer to visual aid}
2. Sub-subpoint: Transition: Now I will tell you about the excessive cost of capital punishment.
II. Second Main Point: The excessive cost of execution is also a reason for the death penalty to be abolished. To keep a man in prison for one 's whole life cost less than executing him. A state would save millions of dollars if they did away with death row and executions.
A. Subpoint: Christy Hoppe, author of “Execution cost Texas millions” says “it cost two million dollars to keep someone on death row and then execute them.”
B. Subpoint: One may believe that the money being used for the execution could be used to help other issues within the state. Some of the issues it could help with could possibly be helping build more prisons to house the criminals, and helping within the school system.
Transition: Now that I have talked about the excessive cost of execution, lets talk about the people who have been wrongfully executed due to false evidence.
III. Third Main Point: There are many known cases where people have went to court and been sentenced to death for evidence that falsely accused them and implemented them. Some people may be sentenced to death
Although having the death row may bring the victims closer, The cost of death vs. life in prison is irradical. Prisoners who do not go through the death penalty process only costs $740,000. If the prisoner went through the death penalty process, it would cost more than $1.26 million. If you were too make the process of the death penalty longer, than they would cost more than $90,000 more each year that they are on trial. Since most death procedures now a days are through lethal
The death penalty is the highest possible sentence a criminal can get, and it is also the most expensive and time consuming. From 1976 to 2011, 1,264 executions took place in the United States; one lethal injection averages $1.26 million. A single trial can lead a local government into financial instability and pull money from other important government services. This paper demonstrates the high cost consequences of the death penalty to states, taxpayers, and personnel working within the justice system. It also analyzes the reason behind why people in poverty are more likely to receive the death penalty when they commit a capital crime than the upper class.
It is irrational to think that the death penalty – a remote threat at best – will avert murders committed in drug turf wars or by street-level dealers” (Bedau). This shows that the death penalty is not stopping murders from occurring. The introduction to the death penalty conducted a survey were top criminologists stated that the death penalty does not deter homicide rates (Introduction). “For 2009, the average Murder Rate of Death Penalty States was 4.9 [Murder rates by the 100,000], while the average Murder Rate of States without the Death Penalty was 2.8” (Introduction).
This criminal code is one of the most sophisticated in the country and has become a model for other states to follow. But research studies conducted to compare effects of the death penalty nationwide have shown some conflicting results. Comparison studies done to show homicide rates of retentionist and abolitionist jurisdictions from 1999 to 2001 (Sorenson & Pilgrim) have shown that death penalty states tend to have a higher murder rate than abolitionist states. This result creates the argument of the overall deterrent effect of execution. Texas is still in the top 20 of states with the highest homicide rate even though it is the highest in death penalty executions. “If the death penalty were a deterrent, the argument goes, then Texas should be located among those states with the lowest homicide rates” (Sorenson & Pilgrim, P. 25).
Central Idea: Homicide rates are lower in non-death penalty states when compared to states with the death penalty.
Another fact is that the death penalty is not a deterrent. Reports have shown in 2008, the 14 states that did not have active capital punishment had surprisingly low homicide rates. They were actually at or below the national homicide rate. So, there is no documentation or proof that having capital punishment deters criminal acts of violence. In fact, in 2009, a survey showed that over 88% believed that the death penalty was not a deterrent for heinous criminal acts. Thomas Sowell, a columnist at the Hoover Institution couldn’t have made a deterrence case any better when he said “We know that the death penalty deters those who are executed. The fact this this is obvious does not make it any less important. It is certainly not less
To illustrate just how absurd the theory of deterrence is, research by the New York Times found that states without the death penalty actually have lower homicide rates than states that support the death penalty. The New York Times states that "ten out of twelve states without the death penalty have homicide rates below the national average, whereas half of the states with enforced capital punishment have homicide rates above the national average" (Harrison). In 2005, there
About two thirds of the countries around the world have abolished capital punishment in law or in practice on the grounds that it really isn’t effective to crime (opposingviews.com). But a 2008 comprehensive review of capital punishment research since 1975 by Drexel University economist Bijou Yang and psychologist David Lester of Richard Stockton College of New Jersey concluded that the majority of studies that track effects over many years and across states or counties find a deterrent effect (usnews.com).
A study conducted by the Journal of Quantitative Criminology reveals that for every execution performed, fifteen murders take its place (Durlauf, et al). The study compiled execution statistics and murder rates across states in order to determine the efficacy of deterrence. Granted, executions do not directly lead to murders, but the data exposes the fact that the death penalty has not been successful in preventing them. In fact crime rates increase in states that resume the practice of the death penalty. For example, Florida had a twenty-eight percent increase in murder rates after executing a prisoner in 1979 for the first time after fifteen years (“White
1. A New York Times survey demonstrated that the homicide rate in states with capital punishment have been 48% to 101% higher than those without the death penalty.
The final point that is in support of the death penalty is that according to a poll many people believe that one of the main reasons the death penalty should be used is that it does costs less. This is proven when a specific article states,”Instead, "save taxpayers money" and simply, "they deserve it," have emerged as the second-most-popular responses to why the death penalty should be used in murder convictions¨(Swift). This shows that people are in favor for the death penalty because it costs the American less money. Thanks to the high cost of LWOP, the cost of the death penalty, and Americans opinions, it can be shown that the death penalty is cheaper than life in
One of the most heavily discussed topics today is the death penalty. On one side of the spectrum, many argue that death is the only form of justice for the most heinous crimes. On the other, many argue that it is a pointless waste of time. Recent studies have supported the latter argument. In 2011, states without the death penalty have had 18% less murder rates than states that do enforce it. For the ten years prior, the murder rates in the state without the death penalty have been consistently lower and even, at times, the murder rate in those states have been lower than average (”Deterrence: States Without the Death”). Furthermore, “In New Mexico, according to the legislative finance committee a death penalty case costs approximately $20-25,000, compared to $7-8,000 for a non-death penalty murder case” (de Leon). From a monetary front, the death penalty has been shown to cost more on average than a regular life sentence. Money is being wasted on a service that harms an individual. The death penalty is not an effective form of deterrence because studies have shown that states with the death penalty have higher crime rates, and it provides no form of justice to anyone.
The reinstating of the death penalty has not shown a decrease in crime activity. Through the years of it being in effect, before and after it was reinstated, it has shown to have no drop in crime and illegal activities. While individually, to certain people, it may have been enough to not commit crimes, in the grand scheme of things it has
Defenders of the death penalty often claim that the execution of criminals will teach others not to do bad, initially decreasing crime rates. This hasty form of generalization statistically proves to be wrong. “When it comes to criminals, Texas has the toughest punishments along with a strict court system. The state of Texas spent four hundred and seventy million dollars in 2001 just for punishing convicts. Despite all that money and stern punishment, the crime rate is still twenty four percent higher than the national average, according to 2003 data” (Gonzales). This supports the fact that tough punishment doesn’t necessarily help crime. Ironically, the harshest state in the U.S continues to house the maximum number of criminal acts. The death penalty, a harsh form of punishment, clearly doesn’t lower crime rate.
The death penalty is very costly to not only the government, but also society. The death penalty has no benefits at all and should be