Persuasive Speech Draft
Persuasive Speech – Final Essay
“Why The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished”
More than 8,000 men and women who have been put on death row since the 1970s were falsely convicted. Eight thousand! Today there are many things that plague society. People have many fears and opinions about those fears. Imagine being put to death by a jury made up of what is supposed to be your peers. I located my information in the journal of Sociology
and the book entitled You Decide. Now, imagine being one of those. The death penalty should be abolished because it is not a deterrent to murder and innocent people may
be executed.
According to the University of Alaska Anchorage Criminal Justice Center, the effect of the death penalty as a deterrent is non-existent. Advocates against the death penalty argue that a criminal is not going to rationalize the effects of his actions upon society or think about execution before committing a crime. Death penalty opponents also argue that life
imprisonment will have an equally incapacitating effect on criminals as an execution will have on those who commit capital offenses. In a 1984 statement, criminologists from the
University of Florida, explained to the Governor that no credible scientific research existed that supported his theory that execution was a deterrent for homicide. The criminologists
stated that any research used to support the death penalty as a deterrent would be political and any credible research could not be gathered with politics as a premise (Sun, 2006).
They further stated that any research that had been presented to support the death penalty was flawed and that it should not be used as a basis to conduct executions in the State of
Florida.
According to The Chicago Tribune, innocent people may be executed in a report that
Carlos De Luna was executed in December of 1989 for a crime that Carlos Hernandez committed and bragged about it. The paper reported that a 16 years after an execution for a murder that he did not commit, new evidence has surfaced to support Carlos De Luna’s claim of innocence. In an April 2002 editorial, the Tribune reported that the Governor of Illinois imposed a moratorium on the death penalty because their system was so flawed and too many innocent people had been sent to death row. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that since 1973, 123 people in 25 states have been released from death row because new evidence proved their innocence. John Ballard of Florida was the last man released from death row in February 2006. The Center also reported that there is no way to
know how many innocent people were executed out of the 1,000 people executed since 1976. In 2005, The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole announced a full pardon for Lena
Baker 60 years after she was tried, convicted and executed. Her case cried out for mercy and although she did commit the murder, manslaughter would have been a more suitable
punishment for her crime.
In conclusion, the death penalty should be abolished because it is not a deterrent and innocent people may be executed. Many criminologists, lawyers, journalists, and death penalty opponents all agree that this practice has no place in our society. Life
imprisonment can have the same incapacitating effect on a murderer as an execution can have. The criminal would not be a part of society and they would repay their debt with
time served in the penal system. Over 123 people have been released from death row with new information which proved their innocence. Execution is a final act that cannot be
reversed. Those men were caged and almost killed for crimes that others have committed. Where is the justice for them? Where is the justice for the men who were
innocent yet put to death? Again, I ask you, could you make the decision to end a man’s life on facts alone?
WORKS CITED
Gundersen Lutheran l (Lacrosse, WI): “The Death of the Death Penalty: “Share Your Life,
Share
Right to Life. 2018 brochure. “Innocent People are Dying” undated brochure.
LifeSource:Newsnotes. October 2016. Accessed November 2, 2017. <www.life-
source.org/newsnotes.htm>.
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