Question

death penalty? (go against death penalty)

what are  great topics to talk about?

Three or more main topic to talk about when going against death penalty.

Answer 1

Every day, people are executed and sentenced to death by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes – sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. In some countries, it can be for drug-related offences, in others it is reserved for terrorism-related acts and murder.

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception - regardless of who is accused, the nature or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution.

Value of human life

Everyone thinks human life is valuable. Some of those against capital punishment believe that human life is so valuable that even the worst murderers should not be deprived of the value of their lives.

They believe that the value of the offender's life cannot be destroyed by the offender's bad conduct - even if they have killed someone.

Some abolitionists don't go that far. They say that life should be preserved unless there is a very good reason not to, and that the those who are in favour of capital punishment are the ones who have to justify their position.

Right to live

Everyone has an inalienable human right to life, even those who commit murder; sentencing a person to death and executing them violates that right.

This is very similar to the 'value of life' argument, but approached from the perspective of human rights.

The counter-argument is that a person can, by their actions, forfeit human rights, and that murderers forfeit their right to life.

Another example will make this clear - a person forfeits their right to life if they start a murderous attack and the only way the victim can save their own life is by killing the attacker.

Amnesty International holds that the death penalty breaches human rights, in particular the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Both rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948.

Execution of the innocent

The most common and most cogent argument against capital punishment is that sooner or later, innocent people will get killed, because of mistakes or flaws in the justice system.

Witnesses, (where they are part of the process), prosecutors and jurors can all make mistakes. When this is coupled with flaws in the system it is inevitable that innocent people will be convicted of crimes. Where capital punishment is used such mistakes cannot be put right.

Arguments against the death penalty

1. The death penalty violates the sanctity of human life. If you are opposed to abortion you must also condemn the death penalty. By forcing a human being to be born you make a commitment to safeguard his life after it leaves the maternal womb. There is more to life than just being born. Right to life means right to life, not right to birth.

2. The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, never has been. It has been factually proven that it does not affect crime rates one way or the other. They are contiguous, and have similar social and economic fabrics.

3. The death penalty is occasionally the result of the unreliability of witnesses and juries, unimpeachable though they may be. Even with the heavy penalties existing for perjury, no one can always be counted on to tell the whole truth. Man is fallible and death is final—two excellent reasons why the latter should not be meted out by the former.

4. The death penalty is not justifiable on the ground of self-defense, as its supporters would have us believe, because self-defense means immediate reaction to direct attack, not calculated homicide, years later, in cold blood.

5. The death penalty is a new sin in hell, in that it necessitates the commission of a fresh crime, a repeat performance in cold blood of the original act of murder, but by state officials, the good guys. And incidentally, the doctor who sits by waiting to pronounce a condemned man dead violates his Hippocratic oath, for by his presence and action he condones the taking of a human life instead of helping to preserve it. The Hippocratic Oath does not provide for exceptions.