Pro Death Penalty Speech
Pro Death Penalty Persuasive Speech
It is October 1978 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Roger Stafford; his wife, Verna; and his brother, Harold entered the Sirloin Stockade restaurant and without any remorse or sympathy, brutally gunned down 6 people, 4 of them young teenagers.The gruesome scene depicted five bodie piled atop each other, their blood forming a slick pool that covered the floor and stained the surrounding boxes of ground beef patties and Wisconsin blue cheese.
That was not Staffords’ first killings, less than a month before this trio of cold-blooded killers fatally shot a North Dakota family of three. Verna Stafford first lured the family driving in their car, pretending to be a stranded motorist. She first shot Melvin Lorenz when he failed to turn over all his money. His wife, Linda Lorenz, was shot by Roger and Harold when she came running to help her husband. With both of them still alive, the trio again pounded their bodies with bullets, then kidnapped their only son of 12 years, Richard. In utter terror, the young boy attempted to yell out for help out of the moving car 's window. Roger became enraged and without any feeling of sympathy for the young boy stuck a gun through the window and shot the boy. Still alive, Richard Lorenz was driven about a mile, removed from the camper and shot again. These inhumane and senseless killings deserve nothing less than a death sentence and that is exactly what was awarded to Roger. I believe the death penalty should be implemented for heinous crimes such as cold-blooded murder. I will first present some history regarding the death penalty in the United States. Approximately 7900 persons have been sentenced to death and 1184 executed from 1976-2009. An average of 0.2% of those were executed every year during that time. Ninety-eight murderers were executed in 1998, a record number for the modern death penalty. This represented 1.8% of those on death row.
It is October 1978 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Roger Stafford; his wife, Verna; and his brother, Harold entered the Sirloin Stockade restaurant and without any remorse or sympathy, brutally gunned down 6 people, 4 of them young teenagers.The gruesome scene depicted five bodie piled atop each other, their blood forming a slick pool that covered the floor and stained the surrounding boxes of ground beef patties and Wisconsin blue cheese.
That was not Staffords’ first killings, less than a month before this trio of cold-blooded killers fatally shot a North Dakota family of three. Verna Stafford first lured the family driving in their car, pretending to be a stranded motorist. She first shot Melvin Lorenz when he failed to turn over all his money. His wife, Linda Lorenz, was shot by Roger and Harold when she came running to help her husband. With both of them still alive, the trio again pounded their bodies with bullets, then kidnapped their only son of 12 years, Richard. In utter terror, the young boy attempted to yell out for help out of the moving car 's window. Roger became enraged and without any feeling of sympathy for the young boy stuck a gun through the window and shot the boy. Still alive, Richard Lorenz was driven about a mile, removed from the camper and shot again. These inhumane and senseless killings deserve nothing less than a death sentence and that is exactly what was awarded to Roger. I believe the death penalty should be implemented for heinous crimes such as cold-blooded murder. I will first present some history regarding the death penalty in the United States. Approximately 7900 persons have been sentenced to death and 1184 executed from 1976-2009. An average of 0.2% of those were executed every year during that time. Ninety-eight murderers were executed in 1998, a record number for the modern death penalty. This represented 1.8% of those on death row.
Cited: Death Penalty Information Center Factsheet, updated November, 2009. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org. Sharp, Dudley, Death Penalty and sentencing Information, October 1, 1997. http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/dp.html