Capital Punishment

The purpose of this speech is to inform the audience of the cruelty of death and that imprisonment alone should be a great enough punishment.

1. The main attention getter is an imagination that I am going to create for the audience so they can imagine the living quarters of an actual prisoner.

2. With evidence such as innocent people being executed and factual evidence that the death penalty does not deter people from committing crimes, why should we as a society allow this inhumane act to continue?

4. In my speech I am going to talk about whether or not murderers actually deserve to die, the alternatives to capital punishment, and the sentences that prisoners receive, but the real sentences they serve.

a. Does the death penalty really deter criminals from their actions?

b. What are the alternatives for capital punishment?

c. How strict is the court system on the sentences that prisoners receive?

1.Does the death penalty really deter criminals from their actions?

i.There is very little valid evidence to suggest that capital punishment deters criminals

1.The most recent study of research findings on the relationship between the death penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, 1988, has concluded that: research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment.

ii.If you were more than likely emotionally ill and were about to commit a crime or murder, would you be thinking about your sentence of life or death in prison?

1.Chances are no, most people wouldn’t be thinking of their punishment because most all murders are committed in first degree, meaning it was not planned out and it was basically an act of rage.

2.What are the alternatives for capital punishment?

a.The first main point is to talk about the different types of executions.

i. Murder cannot be cured by murder.

ii. Although the Bible states that “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” we as a society are not barbarians.

b. Actually enforcing the sentences give to each inmate.

i. Show an overhead of types of crimes and the actual sentence time.

c.Have a transition from the alternatives of the death penalty to have a stricter sentence put on each prisoner.

3.How strict is the court system on the sentences that prisoners receive?

a.Although holding prisoners in jail raises the amount of money the American tax payer has to pay, we are guaranteed a more safe society.

i.Jacob Lamar in his article “I deserve Punishment” in Time, 1989 shows the reader an example of the cost of an inmate, in this example it is Ted Bundy.

b.The punishment of a criminal is often determined by his or her social class and the inadequately representation by a lawyer.

i.Clifton Duffy, former warden of San Quentin Prison in California testifies that capital punishment is ‘a privilege of the poor.’

Conclusion

The death penalty does not deter people from committing crimes. It is a cruel and cold blooded form of punishment and there have been instances where innocent people were sentenced to death and later found to be innocent. The system does not work and it’s been proven over and over with the fact that innocent people have died from accidental convictions.

a.The truth is that it has been proven that the death penalty does not stop crimes from being committed.

b.There are alternatives to the barbaric act of killing other humans. Suffering in jail alone for life should be punishment enough.

c.If a murder is found guilty, rather that let him experience the short pain of death; he or she should have to suffer in jail without the opportunity of parole.

4.Knowing that the death penalty does not deter people from committing crimes and that in the past many innocent peoples lives have been lost because of a mistake in the system, we as a society need to abolish the death penalty.

5.Everyone in this room can help, how driven are you? Do you want to stop this barbaric act? One major influence in changing this policy could be to write your governor or senator. Either one can help you as an individual make a difference in our society.

Works Cited

1)’Simply Living’ Vol.4 No.4 1989, ‘The Green Pages: Amnesty International, Campaign to abolish the death penalty’

2) Encyclopaedia Britannica, Britannica center, Instant Research service, ‘The debate over capital punishment’, ‘Arguments for abolition of death penalty’

3) Time, January 24, 1983, ‘An Eye for an Eye’

4) Lamar, Jacob V. ‘I Deserve Punishment.’ Time. February 1989: 34

5) The Holy Bible

6) Bureau of Justice Statistics, “National Corrections Reporting Program”, February 1994