Felix Runge

Engelsk skriftlig, HH2c 3/17/2023

Speech Manuscript the Death Penalty Put in Perspective

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for showing up today. My name is Felix, I am an exchange

student from Denmark, and I've come here today to talk about The Death Penalty and why we should

abolish it.

Imagine being convicted for a murder you didn't commit. Kwame Ajamu was sentenced to death in 1975

for the murder of Harold Franks. Ajamu was only 17 at the time of his conviction. He was mainly found

guilty because of the testimony of a 13-year-old-boy, yes that's right, a 13-year-old, he said he saw Ajamu

and another young man violently attack Harold Franks. Yet there was no forensic, nor was there any

physical evidence that connected Ajamu to the murder of Harold. Thirty-nine years after the boy testified,

it was revealed that he tried to recant his story. However, the Cleveland homicide detectives threatened

him with arresting his parents with perjury if he changed his story.

So why should we abolish the death penalty? I have a few reasons as to why. First off, it is an irreversible

process, and mistakes can and will happen. Execution is an irrevocable punishment, and the risk of

executing an innocent person can never be eliminated- Every day, people are getting executed for various

crimes, sometimes also innocent people. Since 1973, more than 8,700 people in the U.S. have been sent to

death row. At least 182 weren't guilty—their lives upended by a system that nearly killed them. That is

only the ones we know off, and there might even be more. Is the death penalty a good idea in the U.S

when they sometimes kill innocent people?

In some countries, the death penalty is to deter crime, but does that work? Instead, it would be possible to

give the inmates life in prison and not end their lives. If you were below 18 when the crime was

committed, you could still get executed in the USA. That blows my mind.

The death penalty is still available in 27 states across America. Across these 27 states, lethal injection is

the most used method. But many pharmaceutical companies refuse to supply the required drugs, which

has led to states authorizing deaths that are potentially far less humane. In May, South Carolina instituted
Felix Runge
Engelsk skriftlig, HH2c 3/17/2023

a new law that required death row inmates to choose between the electric chair or firing squad for their

execution. They are, however, able to choose lethal injection "if it is available at the time of election."

Which rarely is available due to the pharmaceutical companies not wanting to deliver the drugs.

Now, let's talk about the frequency. Texas are here the clear "winners" with 573 people put to death since

1976. No state is even remotely close to that. The nearest is Virginia with 113 executions, now don't get

me wrong, that is still a considerable number of executions. Depending on the president or attorney

general’s view of the time, the death penalty might not be used at all. At the time Donald Trump was

president of the United States, the use of the death penalty increased exponentially a total of 13 inmates

were put to death during Trumps final year in office - which is surprising considering that there had not

been a single execution since 2003

In conclusion, we must realize that the death penalty is immoral. And it's not an effective deterrent to

crime. We might risk getting innocent people in the mix. Therefore, I would urge all of you who support

the death penalty to reassess your opinion and see its immorality and ineffectiveness as a deterrent crime.

Thank you for coming, ladies and gentlemen. Feel free to ask questions if you have any, and I'll answer

them to the best of my ability. If you disagree with anything I have said, please let me know and tell me

your viewpoint. Telling me your perspective will help me for future speeches.

Sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/sentenced-to-death-but-innocent-these-are-stories-of-

justice-gone-wrong?loggedin=true

https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/death-penalty-us-states-map-b1932960.html

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/