how do i win this argument?

Question

death penalty cost less in the long run.

Answer 1

That is an unwinnable position. Study after study has demonstrated that costs of death penalty cases, from charge through implementation of the penalty, far outweigh costs of non-capital cases. Largely this is due to the costs associated with appeals, so people have argued that the appeals process needs to be shortened/lessened. Only problem with that is that upwards of 80% of capital cases have sustained successful appeals decisions. It is the only method of checks and balances on a very flawed system of administration of "justice." To circumvent the appeals is to subject the process to even more potential error than already exists.

Answer 2

It really doesn't. The death penalty costs much more than life without parole, mostly because of the costs of the legal process. The Constitution mandates the due process of law, and in capital cases this means a complex and lengthy trial and appeals. However, even with all the Constitutonal protections we cannot completely eliminate the risk that an innocent person will be executed.

Here is part of a study which spells out some of the cost factors.

"These costs are not the result of frivolous appeals but rather the result of Constitutionally mandated safeguards that can be summarized as follows:

Juries must be given clear guidelines on sentencing, which result in explicit provisions for what constitutes aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
Defendants must have a dual trial--one to establish guilt or innocence and if guilty a second trial to determine whether or not they would get the death penalty.
Defendants sentenced to death are granted oversight protection in an automatic appeal to the state supreme court."

The most reliable and comprehensive source of information about the death penalty is at the Death Penalty Information Center. www.deathpenaltyinfo.org.

Answer 3

You already won it. It does cost less in the long run, but whether or not the death penalty is effective or not, that's where you run into your problem. You know, some people in prison aren't guilty, or at least aren't guilty for the crime they are doing time for...

What I never get is the people who are Pro-life are for the death penalty and for wars that accomplish nothing. I don't think I can ever lose an argument about that.

Answer 4

Get hard fact data and prove it.
Your on the concept someone is taken from the court room and shot with little cost.
You will have to consider all the appeals which take many years and cost dearly.
Then when ONE innocent person is MURDERED by the state you just offset any other cost.
There are alot more innocent people in jail then anyone can imagine.
But beth the best way to win any debate if with hard fact data that considers all aspects of the matter

Answer 5

That's a slippery slope, don't go there. Either the individual was found guilty of a crime that warrants capital punishment or not. Too many people in this world are trying to determine for others the value of an individual's contribution to society. This all parallels to a degree why some women give up on babies before they are ever born given a chance to live a life.

Answer 6

Beth,

You can win but it would be difficult since those opposed will either inflate the cost of litigation or deflate the cost of keeping a murderer in LWOP for 70 years.

The purpose of the DP is as Dr. McAdams states.

"If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call."

John McAdams - Marquette University/Department of Political Science, on deterrence

The issue is not about cost -- it is about justice and the value of a life, an innocent life:

"Indeed, the decision that capital punishment may be the appropriate sanction in extreme cases is an expression of the community's belief that certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death."

~ Supreme Court of the United States of America

To challenge their claims --- find the source of the cost data, when/where it were collected, and the assumption of inflation, wages, etc often hidden into footnotes and accounting assumptions. One technique is to overinflate the cost of the guards and training in DP vs LWOP --- But the guards are a sunk cost [they would be their regardless of the sentence, and most do not obtain a pay bonus for working in the execution chamber.]

Cost of attorneys is often over inflated by using the purported cost of some IVY league anti-death lawyer's billing rate when in fact the work is done by low paid para-legals, religious volunteers, and barely out of law school student.

What is the life of daughter of an anti-death penalty lawyer worth if G-d forbid she is raped, tortured, murdered most foul.
What is the worth of a criminal like the murder of Dru Sjodin worth after his 2nd or x attacks?

To those that believe that LWOP is cheaper ask them how they compute the cost --- Take two murderers same age, same race, same state --- one LWOP and on DP.
They will add the cost of appeals [often brought not by the guilty but by groups who are against the DP --- why is this cost included when it is purely political --- not the state is forced to pay for their side in these unnecessary appeals --- it would be nice if the state could sue to recoup these expenses when the anti-DP side loses, appeal after appeal.

Check the sub cites to the one below --- Check also an 1973-1978 journal of Operations Research on the deterent effect of the DP

Good Luck --- hope this helps.

Answer 7

You can't, it does cost less. You would have to argue the validity of the death penalty.

Answer 8

You will never win this arguement. I do agree with you, BUT ONLY if there is DNA type evidence the person did the crime he/she is convicted of. This being as there are too many cases where an inocent person was convicted of a crime. If he/she has been put to death then you just killed an incocent person. But if they are alive in prison then they can be released and hopefully get on with their life.

Answer 9

It is not the cost death penalty help to stop Killing

Answer 10

Does it really? They usually let them sit on death row for years. And, it is our tax dollars that are probably making all the final appeals.