Need some help about capital punishment.

Hello! I need help in presenting arguments and getting more arguments.We're having a debate in our class and I was the unfortunate one to be cast as a speaker against death penalty. It's going to be a British Parlamentary style with supposedly 4 speakers but since my professor wants everyone to talk, there will be five of us talking....yes, this is me ranting.,..sorryI've read a few articles from here and the Death Penalty of the debate section here in romulation. I noticed that the discussion went from Illegal drugs, sex offenders, detailed depiction of lethal injection, animals, perspective in regards to death and other peoples suffering, different forms of religion or worship, and surpringsingly ended with someone mentioning the playstation found in the anime Cowboy Bebop. There was an ellaborate discussion found on page 9,10,11 which I found helpful, many thanks for that.Im kinda stuck with the following ideas and I can't determine which are true facts, therefore I would be most grateful if you could help. This are the things I found while browsing through that website that is pro-life.1. Cost
Which is cheaper? Having someone executed by capital punishment or having them penalized by life imprisonment without parole. I read in most sites (usually about the california state of USA) that it is cheaper to have them imprisoned but there are some sites that suggest otherwise. Do you know of anysite that resolved this?Taking into consideration that execution is via Lethal Injection and the appeals of those on death row. (I had to add this because I just read this where the cheap way of execution is not necessarily what most people nowadays would consider humane. )2. Detterence
Does Capital Punishment reduce crime or makes no difference? Is the small potion of decrease in crime rate make a significant impact on the community? Is it more beneficial to invest money. that is poured in deciding death senteces, to programs that helps the community or doest implementing capital punishment by itself a benefit to the community?3. Impact
Im thinking here of people that are involved parties in execution. The people that are survivors of the victims and survivors of the offender. Is it more beneficial for both parties to simply have the LWOP(Life imprisonment With Out Parole) because I read somewhere that it can cause trauma for both parties to have the event of someones execution forever scarred in their memory. I think this also includes the concept of justice that is very arbitrary and sometimes contradicting, like phrases "how can a government show the value of life in executing another life" or "Why should we be fair to those that are unfair?". I don't really get this one. It's feels like water, difficult to hold....Could you please help me in getting the FACTS straight?I would appreciate it a lot if you would post a link of a study, statistics, thesis, papers, etc. to support your answer...this way i won't get screwed by my teacher or opponents. hehehe.Also, if it would not be too much to ask, please don't use religion as a basis. Many thanks.

Well, here's how I feel on execution "humanity"...If the criminal terribly and gruesomely killed or raped their victim, I will have to go with Hammurabi's code here, eye for an eye. The only way for such criminals to learn is to do to them what they had done to their victims.I think this, showing that the punishment for such actions would actually BE painful and inhumane would GREATLY decrease crime rate.What I feel too, what's prison to the poor who commit crimes? A guaranteed three hot meals and a place to sleep, or as many call it, "three hots and a cot". Providing for killers will do NOTHING.One final comment on this matter is that there should be EQUALITY in justice. A Woman killing a man is just as wrong as a Man killing another man, a white man killing a white man is just as wrong as a black man killing a white man, etc. Punishments should be painful no matter what majority or minority you're in.One interesting thing is that the Electric chair was used for the first time in forty-something years in 2007. They hope to never use it again, but for a while after the time when the chair WAS used, the crime rate dropped...

Since I am far too high to come up with decent argument I will list the kinds of criminals I think we should killPedos/Rapists : Kill [drown them in shit at a sewage treatment center]
Murderers: Kill [preferably with fire]
DUIs : Kill [drown them in booze]
Thieves : Cut their hands off.Cant think of anything else.

Death penalty is more expensive, court fees and all that other stuff.

basho1213 · #3Since I am far too high to come up with decent argument I will list the kinds of criminals I think we should killPedos/Rapists : Kill [drown them in shit at a sewage treatment center]
Murderers: Kill [preferably with fire]
DUIs : Kill [drown them in booze]
Thieves : Cut their hands off.Cant think of anything else.

I think that would serve them right.But imagine the price that it would take to drown someone.

basho1213 · #3Since I am far too high to come up with decent argument I will list the kinds of criminals I think we should killPedos/Rapists : Kill [drown them in shit at a sewage treatment center]

What if we snip off their PeePees?

Death can be cheaper than life in prision if the bad guy is in his 20s. if it was like drug death, expensive. LOL, I remembered that in Texas or some state in southern USA has marksman shoot the suspect in a shooting range.

drowning them in shit would be free though

Replying to #8

where would get free sh**? Sewage companies make pay 2 rat dropping per ounce of sewage.

kindly support your answer with facts please...

contrary to common belief, it actually costs more to execute a criminal than it does to keep them locked up for a typical lifespan.

Replying to #11

Why so? How much is the difference in killing criminals and keeping criminals alive for a certain time? Maybe it cost more to kill them because of the humane way of killing them, right?
Meaning lethal injection.

Replying to #12

I dont know the details offhand, it was something I read a number of years ago.

Loonylion · #11contrary to common belief, it actually costs more to execute a criminal than it does to keep them locked up for a typical lifespan.

Yep.
Kinda weird, but it is true. :PI don't really believe in the death penalty, but I am not in control of anything right now...and I keep forgetting to send in my voter's registration. ::)There's a bunch of stuff that many answer that question, though I didn't read it cause I am very sleepy and I don't feel like it. :P
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001000

damanali · #12Why so? How much is the difference in killing criminals and keeping criminals alive for a certain time? Maybe it cost more to kill them because of the humane way of killing them, right?
Meaning lethal injection.

There are all sorts of court fees and legal papers and appeals that you'll need to go through.And lethal injections are just saline solutions.

Replying to #15

Are you sure?

The first of the three injections is an anesthetic, sodium thiopental, which is a fast-acting barbiturate that depresses the activity of the central nervous system. This initial shot doesn’t serve as an analgesic (pain killer) that numbs pain nerves, but instead rapidly puts a person into a state of unconsciousness that’s theoretically deep enough to make pain undetectable. The drug amplifies the effect of GABA, a neurotransmitter that depresses brain activity, while also blocking the actions of an excitatory brain receptor, AMPA, which acts in many parts of the brain. The state of unconsciousness can be reached in as little as 30 seconds. A single dose of this anesthetic is intended to last throughout the last two injections to prevent any pain during the moments leading up to death (pronounced after the heart stops beating for a certain amount of time).After the initial injection, the intravenous line is quickly flushed with saline, a neutral substance commonly used to push a drug into the bloodstream more quickly. Subsequently, pancuronium bromide is administered. It acts as a neuromuscular blocker, preventing a nerve messenger, acetylcholine, from communicating with muscles.Following another saline flush is the final injection, potassium chloride. This last dosage of chemical floods the heart with charged particles that interrupt its electrical signaling, stopping it from beating. According to a 2002 study in the Journal of Forensic Science, the average length of time from the first injection to death is 8.4 minutes.The dosage of each drug administered in lethal injection is supposed to be redundant, which means that the amount of chemical contained in each shot is lethal. For example, during surgeries, patients are normally given 100 to 150 milligrams (mg) of sodium thiopental, the initial anesthetic used in capital punishment, over a period of 10 to 15 minutes – while up to 5,000 mg are provided during executions. For pancuronium bromide, 40 to 100 micrograms per kilogram of body weight is normally given pre-operatively (to aid intubation) while a thousand times that amount is used for execution. When all three injections are used in executions, the aim is to put the person into a state of total unconsciousness before they die from a mix of respiratory and cardiac arrest.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080918133547AAUkQKWSaline is just used to spread the poison through the body faster.

Oh. My ELA teacher taught us incorrectly then.

Replying to #17

I'd say. :P

To answer this you must ponder the purpose of the death penalty. Is it meant as punishment or is it a measure of safety to the rest of society? If it's a punishment then its not very logical as you can't repent what you've done if you're dead.