America Should

Abolish the Death

Penalty
Tracyone Qualls
Speech 6
June 17, 2014
Project #2, Part 2
The Facts
According to the Death Penalty
Information Center 2012 report
located at deathpenalty.org, the
death penalty has cost
California taxpayers over $4
billion since 1978.
In this presentation, I will:
Define the current harms of the current system
Discuss the causes of the death penalty issues
Present a plan of action
Discuss how this plan will alleviate the harms associated
with the death penalty
Discuss the advantages of abolishing the death penalty
There are two main reasons the death
penalty should be abolished:
Harm 1
The death penalty
is an expensive
punishment
According to a 2011 Forbes article, studies have shown that a death
penalty trial costs $1 million more than trials in which the prosecutors
seek lifetime sentences without parole.
Deathpenaltyinfo.org reported in their assessment of cost in 2012 that
since 1978, California has spent $1.94 billion on pre-trial and trial costs,
$925 million on automatic appeals and State Habeas Corpus petitions,
$775 million on Federal Habeas Corpus petitions, and $1 billion on costs
of incarceration.
Harm 2
There is a possibility
of executing an
innocent person
In 2012, innoncenceproject.org reported in their The Innocent and the Death
Penalty report, that 18 people have been proven innocent and exonerated by
DNA testing after serving time on death row. These inmates spent a total of 229
year in prison for crimes they didnt commit.
According to ncadp.org in a 2011 report, Troy Davis was executed for the 1989
murder of a homeless man. Troy was executed even though there was little
physical evidence, and witnesses later on recanted their testimonies saying they
were false.
The Causes
This is a structural inherency:

Our current death penalty policy is very
expensive and costs tax payers billions
of dollars each year and does not take
into account flaws in out justice system.
Without the abolition of capital
punishment, millions of taxpayers dollars
will continue to be wasted that could be
used to stimulate the economy and
provide services in other areas.
A Plan of Action
Agent: The United States Federal Government

Mandates:
1. The death penalty will no longer be a punishment for crimes committed in the United States of America.
2. Death row facilities will be converted to maximum security facilities where convicts will serve life
sentences without the possibility of parole.
3. A portion of the millions of taxpayers dollars saved shall be used towards intervention and mental health
services.

Enforcement: It shall be deemed unconstitutional and illegal for anyone offender to be sentenced to death or be on death row.

Funding and Staffing:
1. A portion of the taxpayer dollars formerly used for the death penalty shall be diverted towards the care of
the inmates whose sentences are converted to life without the possibility of parole.
2. Public defenders working on death row trials shall continue their work, but they will be bargaining against
life with out the possibility of parole sentences.
3. Physicians working with death row inmates will be transferred to work with the general prison population.

Timeline: The abolition on the death penalty shall be effective immediately. The abolition of the death penalty shall also be
retroactively effective to the date of the oldest death penalty sentencing.
Solvency
Harm 1: The death penalty is a very expensive
punishment
By abolishing the death penalty, taxpayer dollars will no longer have to be used to fund
expensive trials and petition processes. Since inmates will be sentenced to life in prison
without parole, the added costs of death row will be eliminated.
Since a portion of the dollars used for the death penalty will be used towards
intervention/prevention, ultimately money will be saved as less people will be
committing crimes due to them receiving supportive services.
Harm 2: There is a possibility of executing an
innocent person
With the death penalty abolished, the risk of executing an innocent person will be
removed.
Even if an innocent inmate serves jail time with a life without parole sentence for a
crime they did not commit, they can be released from prison and provided with some
sort of reparation. If that inmate is executed, and then discovered to be innocent, there
is no possible way to bring that person back and give them their deserved freedom.
Advantages
In addition to solving the issues that the
death penalty presents, abolishing capital
punishment has a number of advantages:

Abolishing capital punishment and replacing it with lifetime sentences without parole
allows the victims family to find closure sooner than later. Death penalty cases take
years and during that time the family still has to deal with not knowing the perpetrators
final punishment.
According to benefitofit.net in their 2012 Benefits of Abolishing the Death Penalty
article, Abolishing capital punishment allows for rehabilitation opportunities. Inmates will
have the opportunities to participate in rehabilitation efforts and become better
members of the community.
Inmates that have been rehabilitated can serve as examples for deterring crime.
They also can serve as speakers to groups of at-risk teens to show them the impact of
violence and why its never the answer.
Support abolishing the death
penalty!
Abolishing the death penalty allows our
country to reshape our justice system
and invest more in other areas that will
benefit our country, such as education,
and intervention services. We will
eliminate the risks of taking an innocent
life, and we will be offering a second
chance to those who have made
mistakes.