Against Death penalty speech

Against Death penalty speech

Hello, and welcome to this exclusive forum where we get to talk about real issues affecting the people of the United States of America. It is my honor to be here today and looking forward to having a great time with you fellow Americans.

Time after time, we have always witnessed some states pass the motion that some criminal acts should be punishable by death. I mean, who should take some that he or she cannot? We live in a society that is very much polarized.  Thomas (2020), who is an editor at the American Addiction Centers, claims that about 19% of the American population is addict to one illegal substance or the other. A 19% portion of the American people is a large number to assume. Another data by Sethuraju et al. (2016) indicates that the capital crimes registered in the United States of America are highly linked to the substance abuse that is ever increasing in the world’s greatest nation. The situation in the American States is different regarding capital punishment. A total of twenty-nine states have legalized the use of capital punishment. In the remaining twenty-one states, five are in the discussions to legalize the use of capital punishment while the other sixteen are yet to voice out their position in the use of capital punishment. As the way things are going, we as a country are heading in the same direction. A direction in which America will be a country that will be known to execute everyone who is found guilty of capital punishment. But as I asked earlier, who is supposed to take away something that he or she cannot give?

Hello again! My name is Richard Branson, and here to talk about why America, as a country, should relinquish the law that allows judges and magistrates to punish criminal offenders with death penalties.

A death penalty is a form of punishment where the offender is supposed to be killed by the means described by the judge or the magistrate. When such laws are inscribed in our federal state laws, they allow for planned deaths to take place. Life is sacred, and it is a gift that only comes from God; none of us here can be able to gift life to another person. As individuals who understand the sanctity of life, why should we have systems that are designed to end the lives of specific individuals who are found guilty of certain crimes? Various arguments are designed against the use of capital punishments in our judicial systems.

One of the arguments is that there is a possibility of error in concluding that one should be punished by death. The error I am talking about here is when the innocent people are convicted to death row, get executed, and later evidence emerges that shows they were innocent from the crimes they were executed about. It is easier to get someone out of prison, but one’s life cannot be reinstated once it is lost. According to the Death Penalty and Information Centre, America has executed 1514 people since 1976 to date. According to the article, among every ten people who are executed, one of them is wrongly executed. For instance, the conviction and execution of one Larry Griffin in Missouri have one execution case that has confirmed that there are errors that are committed during murder convictions. According to a report released by NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, it indicated that Larry Griffin was not part of the shooting that led to the injury and subsequent death of Quintin Moss. According to the team, the shooting was done by other people who were jailed because of other murder charges. Though he was ultimately executed in 1995, Larry Griffin maintained that he was innocent from the allegations until he met his timely death. The case of Larry Griffin is not new to the airwaves, as many other people have been executed to crimes they did not commit. If Larry Griffin was not executed and the new evidence emerged, probably he would be somewhere right now enjoying life with his grandchildren (Death Penalty Information Center, 2020).

Another argument against the death penalty is the time spent on death row waiting for execution. Most of the executions carried out in the United States of America have been carried out years after the conviction was done (Snyder, 2019). Within the time that the convicted waits for his or her execution, you can try to imagine the level of mental torture he or she undergoes. Imagine that the accused is sure that he is innocent from the crime he is charged with, what will be his mental state? The states are responsible for the mental torture of such people because they intentionally delay execution with reasons such as appeal periods and subsequent postponement of the appeal hearings. To avoid such, the state should ban capital punishment and replace it with life imprisonment.

Another argument against capital punishment is that the American constitution guarantees the right to life and protection of life for everyone (Yost, 2019). Why should the courts of law go against the constitution that it is supposed to protect? Why should congress pass laws that are meant to contradict what is stated in the constitution about human life? I am not defending the capital offenders, but I am raising questions that will help other Americans reflect on why the country needs to do away with capital punishment. Furthermore, there are no proven statistics that capital punishment has deterred people from committing capital punishment.

As I conclude my speech, the government should find out ways on why they can be able to deal with the root cause of capital punishment. It is a shame that the American justice system is on the frontline of going against the constitution it is supposed to protect. Issues such as an error in conviction, human right to life, and the mental torture are enough to push the government towards abolishing capital punishment. When an individual is arrested because of capital crimes, he or she should be punished by life imprisonment and maybe daily hard strokes. As i end my speech, please, there is a petition that I will be sharing with you to sign so that we can convince the government to abolish capital punishment.