Death Penalty Speech

Close Share Embed Message Customize your player Code and preview Here is my Death Penalty speech

death penalty speach

Oakley Fearon

IS DEATH PENALTY THE ANSWER?

Death penalty is wrong,foolish and disgraceful. Ever since we were young children we have been told to treat people how we want to be treated but killing people as a punishment that's another thing. Since when did this world teach killing is wrong by killing? To take a life when a life has already been lost is revenge, not justice. Just think about it,would you take someone's life?

Human life is valuable, precious  and  priceless. I believe that every human has a right to live no matter their crime.  I'm not saying they should be let off the hook unpunished, what I'm saying is that killing them is wrong and that's what prison cells are for. The death penalty overrules our most basic human right-the right to live.

Every year innocent people  get killed due to mistakes by police and the authorities. Many people have been wrongly convicted of a crime that they  haven't committed. Prosecutors,witnesses and jurors do make mistakes and in 2010 statistics showed that 1000 people had been released with proof that they were wrongfully convicted. Yes, when they found that these people were innocent, they released them from prison.  Being released from prison does not take back the time they could have been spending with family and friends. However, if the death penalty was in place , they wouldn’t have any time with family and friends. They would be dead!

No reliable study shows that the death penalty actually prevents people from committing crimes. The death penalty doesn't seem to stop people from committing serious, violent crime. If the threat of a death penalty makes no difference, then why do we  carry on with this cruel and degrading punishment in many countries around the world? I would argue that we persist with it because people want to see vengeance and not justice and for governments it is cheaper.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   The USA and countries around the world will never gain peace if they are killing their  own citizens. It would cost up to five times more than that to keep someone locked up for lifetime imprisonment. The death penalty shows a wrong message to society that violence is the proper response to violence.

On the 17th of September 1941 when Labour took over in New Zealand , they made it official that NzZhad abolished the death penalty for the time being. But when the National party took over they brought the death penalty back in the year 1950, before finally  removing it from the statute book in 1961. When this was finally done they changed the death penalty sentence to a lifetime imprisonment. The first execution in New Zealand was Maketū Wharetōtara a 16 year old maori who was convicted in 1842. In total 82 men and one woman were executed for murder and one man for treason in New Zealand between 1842 and 1957. Even though 82 people lost there life’s I think that this is 82 people to many. How many of these people might have been innocent? How many families lost a father or mother because of a wrongful  conviction?

In conclusion I stand with my point of view that the death penalty is wrong, foolish and disgraceful. Killing for a punishment is revenge not justice. Human life is precious and valuable. So why kill? There is no evidence that shows death penalty decreases the number of crimes. So think about it, do you think the death penalty is the answer?