Death Penalty Speech

Capital punishment – Life or Death – If you had a choice what would you choose? There are three reasons why the government believes they have the right to use capital punishment. Firstly, to protect the safety of the citizens, secondly, to deter others from committing similar offences and finally, to have some form of punishment for the offender. All three of these are convincing but none of them justifies the killing of the criminal. I strongly believe that the death penalty doesn’t deter potential criminals and that it should be abolished. Some of you might have strong beliefs about capital punishment and some of you might not have even considered it. So today I hope to persuade you that capital punishment is a denial of a basic right, more expensive than life imprisonment, and has the risk of executing innocent people.

What is capital punishment? The World Book 2002 defines capital punishment as punishment by death for committing a certain crime. The crimes that capital punishment is mandatory for in certain countries include murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and treason.

There are plenty convincing reasons against the use of capital punishment. The first reason why I believe capital punishment is wrong is because it is the denial of our basic right. According to Humans Right Association capital punishment overrules our most basic human right - the right to life. Some may say that the criminal may no longer have a right if they take another’s life, but that doesn’t make sense to me. “Why would we choose to kill people who kill people to show that killing is wrong?" Two wrongs aren’t ever going to make something right. To me our government is showing that under some circumstances premeditated murder is okay.

Another big problem that I have with the death penalty is there is a possibility of error Investigations have revealed many convicted individuals who are innocent which got death penalty in the past, and have been pardoned. Here's a story of a Vietnam veteran who spent over 18 years on Idaho's death row: Charles Fain was charged for the 1982 kidnapping, sexual assault, and drowning of a 9-year-old Daralyn Johnson. At his trial, the case against Fain rested on the opinion of the FBI forensics expert who testified that hairs found on the victim's clothing may have been Fain's. However, in March 2000, a federal District Court authorized funds for additional forensic testing of the hairs. The new tests revealed that the hairs found on the victim didn't come from Fain. His conviction was set aside and prosecutors announced he would not be retried. Fain walked out of the maximum security prison in Boise on August, 23. I do not think that we should risk the chance of killing an innocent person. Recent DNA investigation studies have shown the same thing.

Another reason why the death penalty should be abolished is because it is unfair judgment. - Generally, it is observed that Capital punishment is inflicted mostly on the poor and minorities. If you follow the data of these victims, you will find that the mentally ill, poor and people belonging to minorities form a large chunk of the total number. The poor can rarely afford a good lawyer and the defense lawyers aren’t always the best, which results in losing the case. Due to prejudice and bias, poor people, and people from minority sections become soft target for such capital punishments. If any one decides to appeal ( which most do) then it becomes a burdensome process for him/or her often resulting in denial of justice.

The next reason why I believe the death penalty is wrong is because of the lack of deterrence .The purpose of any punishment should be deterrence from repeating the same act. But, according to the statistics available, the death penalty has not been effective in controlling the homicide rate. Studies have revealed the truth that executions actually increase the murder rate. That means the capital punishment does not deter violent crime. According to a New York Times study, the last 20 years witnessed 48% homicide rate in states with the implementation of capital punishment compared to 23% in the states without capital punishment.

The death penalty is made up of prolonged uncertainty. The validity to the deterrence argument is annulled by the delays, endless appeals, retrials, and technicalities that keep persons predestined to capital punishment waiting for execution for years. In fact, we are not competent enough to carry out execution.

Lastly, the death penalty has a major effect on society – Capital Punishment is itself a premeditated murder. This is unacceptable even it is inflicted by state authority as it lowers the value of life. In fact, such act can only damage the society. "Revenge is essential" can become a society attitude. By witnessing such acts, our own mental makeup starts believing that violence is necessary to curb the wrongdoings. I also think that it isn’t fair to punish the family and friends of the victim. The family of the victim is permanently traumatized and victimized. They are often punished by their loved ones without their fault, even though they are innocent.

Overall, the death penalty as we would think should be a help to our society, but in reality it's far from it. The high probability of killing innocent people, the denial of our basic rights , and it's lack of deterrence all leads to the conclusion that the death penalty is not a wise solution to crime and will not help us in the future.