Persuasive Speech: The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

Each year in many countries around the world people are murdered in the name of “justice”. But can justice really include a sanitised form of revenge? Many people are for the death penalty regardless of what it actually is. For the duration of this speech I am going to be presenting a few of the many arguments facing capital punishment.

A major way that the death penalty is flawed is shown in the amount of innocent people who are sentenced to death. In the U.S.A alone since 1973 130 innocent people have been sentenced to death(1) and in the last two years evidence has come up that indicates four men previously thought to be guilty may have actually been innocent and put to death(3). The death penalty is supposed to protect innocent people from

In fact capital punishment trials usually cost twenty times more than trials for lesser crimes (3). This is due to heavy legal costs and other factors. What is the point of paying more to have them executed when they could spend their entire lives in prison and come to terms with what they did? Letting old age be the executioner will cost less for the tax payers. And in the end why should tax payers suffer because the criminal killed someone? The answer is they should not! California currently spends $184 million on the death penalty per year and is on track to spend $1 billion in the next five years (3). Could this money not go towards better purposes such as helping the victim’s family instead of attempting to take more life? The fact is executing the criminal is not going to bring the victim back, it is only going to take more money from the, state instead of the money going to a better cause than more

But can the dead really feel sorry for what they did? Surely life in prison means the prisoner is forced to live with the guilt of what they did for life never to see the outside world again. Would this not be a greater punishment than simply killing them? And the people that think that capital punishment is the right thing to do should take in to consideration that executions can go horribly wrong. This happened to a man named Christopher Newton who stayed alive for well over an hour and a half and was even permitted a toilet break as it was taking too long. He died in agony having convulsions that went on for 16 minutes until he died (4). Evidently ending a criminal’s life in this way is barbaric and does not deserve a place in our modern day society. Some people however might go on to say that the death penalty acts as a deterrent and prevents the criminal from ever crime again. But life in prison also does this and when you look at all of the pros and cons of each life in prison is cheaper and more ethical than the death penalty.

In the end the death penalty is just a terrible excuse for cold blooded murder. A chance to get revenge on the prisoner and continue the killing in some cases decades after the crime. During my research into the death penalty I have found