Certain Crimes can only be punished by death

Good afternoon adjudicators, fellow debaters and audience. I am the 2 nd speaker

of the negative team, and we, the negative team believe that it is unnecessary
to punish certain crimes by death.
I believe that life imprisonment is the ideal alternative punishment, instead of
the death penalty. Firstly, as stated by our first speaker, death penalty is a long
and lengthy. In the United States, although many criminals are sentenced to
death, it is very unlikely that they will be executed. It takes an average of 20
years of wait time before execution takes place. This is because of the endless
appeals process and reviews that must take place. In order for a court hearing to
occur, the prosecutors need to be paid, the jury needs to be paid, the endless
appeal processes needs to be paid, the court needs to be paid. This costs of is 6
to 8 times more than life imprisonment because the costs of prosecutors alone is
significantly more than prison guards. And where would this money come from?
Our tax money. Instead of using money to end lives, we should invest in life
imprisonment and save a great deal of money to use on areas that will benefit
our nation.
Secondly, there is a margin of air when it comes to executing a person. In the US,
1 in 10 people are executed innocently for a crime they did not commit. For
example, if we knew that 1 in 10 planes that took off will crash, the percentage is
too high to risk doing so. The same goes for execution. When people are
executed, they have lost their lives. It is a done deal which cannot be undone.
Life imprisonment however can be undone. We would be avoiding the execution
of innocents.
Thirdly, I am sure that we all agree that criminals who commit extreme crimes
deserve the worst possible punishment. The death penalty is the perfect
opportunity for a criminal to escape from their wrongdoings. Notorious serial
killers, such as Ted Bundy, Jack Bird and many more committed acts of murder
knowing that they would be executed. They expected it to happen. Lets take Ted
Bundy for example, one who is remembered and booked after he murdered and
raped many young girls. He was not afraid to be executed, knowing that he will
be remembered and he wasnt afraid of death. Imprisonment and isolation would
be more extreme as it is the worst kind of psychological torture. Human beings
are social creatures and without contact with other humans, our minds decay
without anything to do other than reflect on your past.
If a person commits a murder, to lay the death penalty upon that person is a
contradiction of the ethical constraints that surrounds murder in the first place.
How can we as a society function successfully if we believe and live by two
wrongs make a right? Lets apply this concept to this example: If Kevin stole
Jacintas lunch in the past, therefore it is acceptable for Jacinta to steal Kevins
lunch today. What we are left with are two students that who steal, with no better
understanding of why they shouldnt steal. Before you say that this has no
relevance to this issue, stop and think about this. If we execute criminals for
crimes such as murder or treason we are no more ethical than the criminals
themselves. However, if we punish them with a life imprisonment, we are still
taking away their life, but not killing them.