English 210 Course Workbook

© Spring 2019, Barbara Cooper

Organizing Your Part of the Presentation

Each group member is responsible for organizing his/her individual section in the body of
the presentation. After you have done an adequate amount of research, you must organize
your notes into an outline.

Your group will review your outline with you and help you evaluate where you may need to
do more research.

Sample: Individual Outline – Arguments against the death penalty in CA

Transition: Now that you have heard why a lot of Californians support the death penalty, I want to
point out that there are many people who have a different point of view and strongly oppose this form
of punishment. Here are some arguments against the death penalty:

I. Death penalty = very high cost to taxpayers

a) more expensive than a life sentence
b) state pays for public defenders Ô many years of court cases to carry out death
sentences
c) $$ could be better spent:
1) to help families of victims
2) to support law enforcement Source: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/millions-misspent
II. Death penalty doesn’t deter crime – U.S. Research from 2015:
a) 25 states with highest murder rates Ô 20 of those states have death penalty (80%)
b) 25 states with low murder rates Ô11 have death penalty (44%)
c) Conclusion of research: States w/death penalty have more cases of violent crime!
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-a-tures/does-the-death-penalty-re_b_13362760.html

III. Death penalty not used fairly

a) More than 50% of people on death row in the U.S. are minorities
b) Poor criminals executed more often than wealthier criminals
1) can’t afford private lawyers
2) assigned public defenders – may be overworked or inexperienced
Source: https://eji.org/death-penalty/race-and-poverty
c) Mentally ill criminals should not be executed
1) Mentally ill people are pushed to confess to crimes & give up right to appeal
2) Unclear guidelines for evaluating mental fitness
Source: https://eji.org/death-penalty/mental-illness
– Outline continues on next page

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 English 210 Course Workbook
© Spring 2019, Barbara Cooper

– Outline continued from previous page

IV. Wrongful executions occur

a) statistics show that some death penalty criminals were innocent (risk of error has
increased) Reasons:
1) political pressure to solve murders
2) no eye-witnesses
3) false testimonies by eye-witnesses
4) jurors influenced in high-publicity cases
5) limited resources for defense
6) “reasonable doubt” is too much doubt for death penalty
7) appeals based on innocence are restricted
b) DNA evidence and death penalty errors
c) not the same as imprisonment – executions can’t be corrected
Source: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/523
V. Death penalty = human rights violation
a) ICPPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) - 141 countries do not allow
death penalty
b) death penalty is legal in countries that US criticizes for human rights abuses
c) creates bad reputation for US w/ international community
Sources: https://www.aclu.org/issues/human-rights/human-rights-and-death-penalty
https://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/DeathPenaltyFactsMay2012.pdf

VI. Alternative to death penalty = life sentence without parole

a) less expensive
b) fair and humane
c) wrongful convictions can be corrected
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Replace-death-penalty-with-permanent-
imprisonment-3226585.php

Transition to conclusion: Now you can see that there are many reasons why people are
opposed to the death penalty. Opponents to the death penalty believe that it’s not economical or
ethical, and that the death penalty does not make us any safer. Next, my partner, Heather, will
conclude our presentation.