Class activity

PRO TEAM:

SOURCE #1 WWW.americamagazine.org/politics-society/1982/11/20)10-reans-oppose.death_penalty

FACTS:

1.    There is no way to remedy the occasional mistake.

2.    There is racial and economic discrimination in application of the death penalty.

3.    Application of the death penalty tends to be arbitrary and capricious; for similar crimes, some are sentenced to death while others are not.

4.    The death penalty gives some of the worst offenders publicity that they do not deserve.

5.     The death penalty involves medical doctors, who are sworn to preserve life, in the act of killing.

6.    Executions have a corrupting effect on the public.

7.    The death penalty cannot be limited to the worst cases.

8.     The death penalty is an expression of the absolute power of the state; abolition of that penalty is a much- needed limit on government power.

9.    There are strong religious reasons for many to oppose the death penalty

10.   Even the guilty have a right to life.

CON TEAM

SOURCE#1Www.bbc.couk/newsround/1507511

§  the death penalty goes aganist our most basic human rigth-the rigth to life

§  Being killed by lethal injection or being electrocuted is not always smooth and painless, sometimes it causes a painful death

§  No-one has ever proven with numbers that killing murderers stops other people committing similar crimes

§  Mistakes are sometimes made in the law - what if someone is killed who is actually innocent?