The Death Penalty

1. The Death Penalty

2. Is it moral? Do people deserve it? Answers: It is both moral and immoral, and they are both deserving and undeserving. Everyone has their own opinions, beliefs, and values. BUT these are not my arguments. I respect everyone’s own beliefs and opinions, but I argue for justice.

3. My Argument: • The justice system is too flawed and imperfect to juggle a persons life with. • Proving the guilt and innocence of a person being tried for murder has three main complications:

4. Three complications: • Money: some defendants do not have the financial ability to pay for good representation who would order such things as DNA testing. Some departments of certain towns, cities, or states don’t have the financial ability to get DNA tests or any other kind of analysis for their cases.

5. Three Complications • Insufficient Evidence: Some trials do not gather enough evidence to perform a proper investigation of the crime. When this happens, prosecutors usually rely on testimony. The testimony usually comes from an unreliable person such as a jail house snitch or anyone who was around the area of the crime.

6. Three Complications • Jury Deliberations: Some members of the jury are likely to be persuaded to a certain deliberation when the prosecutor is presenting his case. Most prosecutors will call to testify the unreliable sources, unreliable laboratory results, and recount the heinous events of the crime. The jury has very little reliable evidence to make a decision.

7. How many exonerations have there been since 1973? • 138 exonerations, 7 of which have been based on DNA testing

8. The co$t of the death penalty: • California-Using conservative rough projections, the Commission estimates the annual costs of the present (death penalty) system to be $137 million per year; The cost of a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty would be $11.5 million per year. • Federal Costs-The average cost of defending a trial in a federal death case is $620,932, about 8 times that of a federal murder case in which the death penalty is not sought • Texas-Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about $2.3 million. That is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years

9. Does the death penalty work as a deterrent? Dallas Morning News Reported: • “The South executes far more convicted murderers than any other region yet has a homicide rate far above the national average” • Answer: No, people are aware of the consequences of any action (killing, stealing, speeding), but knowing there is a chance of evasion of the consequence makes them commit the crime anyway.

10. What should be done? • The death penalty should be done away with because there is no perfect way to ensure that a person is guilty.