Arizandy Rios

Comm 101

Topic : The Death Penalty

General Purpose : To inform
Specific Purpose : To inform my audience on the major arguments for and against the
Abolishment of the Death Penalty.

Introduction
I. Attention Getter : Life is sacred. This is an ideal that the majority of people can agree upon to
a certain extent. For this reason taking the life of another has always been considered the most
dishonorable of crimes, one worthy of the harshest available punishment. Thus arises one of the
great moral dilemmas of our time. Should taking the life of one who has taken the life of others
be considered an acceptable punishment? Is a murderer's life any less sacred than the victim is?
Can the death penalty, capital punishment, legal murder, execution or whatever society calls it,
be morally justifiable?
II. Credibility Statement : I have always been curious about the Death Penalty and the reasons
for it and against it. So I decided to do more research about it and the arguments for and against
it.
III. Thesis Statement : The Abolishment of the Death Penalty is an issue well discussed.
However to discuss the issue you must be aware of the arguments from both sides.
IV. Preview : Today Im going to discuss the arguments for and against the Abolishment of the
Death Penalty.

Body
I. Arguments as to why the Death Penalty shouldnt be abolished.
A. This theory o f justice which demands for Tooth for a Tooth and an Eye for an Eye is
the strongest argument of the capital punishment. When a criminal does an act to fulfill
his selfish motives resulting into personal gains then the equilibrium of justice in society
is disturbed.
1. To maintain this equilibrium the criminal should be punished with the same intensity
of punishment no matter, even if it is capital punishment.
2. Criminals who commit capital crimes have reached a point where rehabilitation is
impossible and for some life in prison might increase criminal behaviour. The death penalty,
therefore, prevents crimes for recurring and protects society.
B. The second major arguments as to why it shouldnt be abolished is because the absence of
death penalty increases the crime rate.
1. As reported by Time magazine, an estimated 2,000,000 people in the United States
have been victims of crimes, from assault to murder.
 2. With insufficient laws to address this problem the criminals become careless and
bolder to commit awful crimes.
C. The third major argument is the Death Penalty is necessary to protect society
1.Some criminals simply cannot be allowed to keep living because every moment
they're alive is another minute that they're a threat to the community. Some criminals are simply
so far gone that they're beyond help and will always be a major risk to society.
2. Fellow prisoners are the people who are most at risk. One of the reasons prisons are
so dangerous is because they are full of murderers and rapists -- it would be unjust to the other
inmates to expose them to such violent offenders.
3.The wider community is also at risk from violent offenders who either escape prison
or are paroled early due to an ineffective parole system.

( Transition : We have discussed some of the important arguments for the Death Penalty now
lets go over some of the also important arguments against the Death Penalty. )

II. There are many reasons as to why the Death Penalty should be abolished. Some may say
because the death penalty is incompatible with human rights and human dignity, the risk of
executing innocent people exists in any justice system, and many more reasons.
A. The one of the many major arguments for abolishing the Death Penalty is that an
innocent person could be sentenced for a crime they did not commit.
1.The death penalty alone imposes an unchangeable sentence. Once an inmate is
executed, nothing can be done to make amends if a mistake has been made. There is considerable
evidence that many mistakes have been made in sentencing people to death. Since 1973, at least
88 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged.
2. Our capital punishment system is unreliable. A recent study by Columbia University
Law School found that two thirds of all capital trials contained serious errors. When the cases
were retried, over 80% of the defendants were not sentenced to death and 7% were completely
acquitted.
B. Another major reason is the belief that the death penalty is conflicting to human rights.
1. It is cruel because it goes back to the earliest days of when slavery, branding, and
other corporal punishments were common. Like those barbaric practices, executions have no
place in a civilized society.
2.It violates the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhumane or
degrading treatment or punishment.
C. The death penalty is applied in a racially biased manner. This bias extends not only to
the race of the defendants singled out for death sentences but also to the race of the victim. When
it comes to the death penalty, the lives of minorities are valued less than that of whites.
1.African Americans are 12 percent of the U.S. population, but 42 percent of prisoners
on death row. In Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Maryland, and in the U.S. military and federal
system, more than 60 percent of those on death row are Black; Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio all have death rows where more than 50 percent are
African American.
2. Over 18,000 executions that have taken place in this countrys history, only 42
involved a white person being punished for killing a Black person.
D.One of the also major arguments is that the death penalty is much more expensive than
life in prison.
1.Cases without the death penalty cost $740,000, while cases where the death penalty is
sought cost $1.26 million. Maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more
per year than a prisoner in general population.
2.The millions of dollars in savings could be spent on: education, roads, police officers
and public safety programs, child abuse prevention programs, mental health services, and
services for crime victims and their families.

Conclusion
I.Review : Today we discussed some of the important arguments for and aganist the Abolishment of the
Death Penalty.
II. Reference back to the Attention Getter : Hopefully now you know or understand a little bit more the
reasons against and for the death penalty.