Death Penalty Persuasive Speech

First degree murder is generally defined as the unlawful killing of a human being that was either deliberate or premediated or takes place at the same time as certain other crimes such as, kidnapping. Current state laws make first degree murder punishable by death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole when specific “Special Circumstances” of the crime have been charged or been proven in court. It is possible though to be released by the parole board after a minimum of 25 years if they feel you are worthy. The death penalty is a topic that the United States is divided on. Currently there are 31 states with the death penalty and California is on that list. In 2012 a ballot was proposed that would appeal the death penalty

as the maximum punishment for people found guilty of murder and replaces it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. I am against prop 34 because keeping these inmates alive is very costly to the government giving lifetime food, shelter, and healthcare to murderers and rapists.
At the time of the election California currently had 725 people on death row who had exhausted all their appeals and were eligible for execution. Each inmate in prison costs $63,000 a year when that amount of money could go to road construction, education, military funding, etc. Due to the drawn out appeals process the cost of incarceration is increased and our social morals insure the health of a convicted criminal are part of the increased cost. Lawyers are paid by the taxpayers to insure the innocent person being put to death is minimized. We currently have 714 inmates on death row. A Seattle university studied the costs of the death penalty in Washington and found that each case costs an average of $1million more than a similar case where the death penalty was not sought. Defense costs were about three times as high in death penalty cases and prosecution costs were as much as four times higher than for no death penalty cases. There are 19 States without the death penalty include Alaska, Connecticut, and New York just to name a few.
Many people feel that the death penalty goes against amendment 8, the cruel and unusual punishment clause, but in all reality the use of lethal injection is more humane than the guillotine, chopping the head off with a sword, hanging or a bullet in the back of the head.

Systems except for the guillotine that are being used in modern societies by other countries. Where was the humane treatment for the victims? The victims had no appeal process that lasted thirty years. What about the 14 year old child brutally raped and dismembered, or the elderly women murdered for her few dollars? Is life in prison without parole the answer, should we penalize society by incarcerating criminals for life? My opinion is the minute it is decided they will spend the rest of their lives in prison, we should take them out and shoot them, therefore putting society out for the business of caring for people that will never see the light of day. Why should we pay that $63000 per year to house the like of Charles Manson who will never be released? The death penalty is the only deterrent available to prevent more crimes from being committed. Police and States Attorneys use this as a bargaining chip all the time to gain information of other crimes about to be committed or to gain a confession from the accused. Capital punishment is likely to cause less people to contemplate murder or other various illegal actions because people fear death more than anything else. Hence the threat of the death

penalty may cause murderers to change their mind who might otherwise care less about the consequences. Surely the death penalty is the only way to get through to these people because people that are already serving that have no severe consequences could potentially kill a guard when already imprisoned.
Statistics have proven that minorities and those with lower income levels are overrepresented on death row.

Though this is not due to documentation but rather due to the higher rate at which these groups commit a crime. It has been argued that poverty leads to criminality. If this is true then it makes sense that those at a lower economic level would be more likely to be sentence to execution than those at higher economic levels. It has also been proven that minorities are disproportionately poor, and therefore they would also be more likely to receive the death penalty. Ernest Van den Haag says it the best, “Punishments are imposed on persons, not on … economic groups. Guilt is personal. The only relevant question is: does the person to be executed deserve the punishment? Whether or not others deserved the same punishment, whatever the economic or racial group, have avoided execution is irrelevant.” (ProCon.org)

Another argument put forth by people that want the death penalty abolished is that the possibility of executing an innocent person exists. There are many people that argue this point underestimate how often this actually happened or the last time it actually occurred. It is very rare for this to occur and has not happened since 1976 when the death penalty was reintroduced. Steven D Stewart, the prosecuting Attorney for Clark County, Indiana, affectively proves this argument to be

false:
“…No system of justice can produce results which are 100% certain all the time. Mistakes will be made in any system which relies upon human testimony for proof. We should be vigilant to uncover and avoid such mistakes. Our system of justice rightfully demands a higher standard for death penalty cases. However, the risk of making a mistake with the extraordinary due to process applies in death penalty cases is very small, and there is no credible evidence to show that any innocent persons have been executed at least since the death penalty was reactivated I 1976… The inevitability of a mistake should not serve as grounds to eliminate the death penalty any more than the risk of having a fatal wreck should make automobiles illegal…” (ProCon.org). Since 2011 DNA has become an upcoming epidemic by increasing the conformation of the guilty versus the innocent in capital cases which is one of the many ways that helps to ensure innocent people are not sentences to death. DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid, is an essential molecule that is part of every cell in our body. Essentially because it enables an embryotic cell to become and exist as a functioning being. DNA is useful in modern day science because of its uniqueness. Every persons DNA is different so there is great accuracy when using it to decide if someone is guilty or innocent. Except for in the case of identical twins or bone marrow recipients DNA is a reliable identifier. Hair, Saliva, Semen, skin, and blood are the useful molecules to help either exonerate or convict felons with great accuracy but only if these specimens are properly collected, preserved, and kept from contamination. Under only these conditions DNA testing is the modern version of fingerprinting.