Devin Stallings

09/24/2014

Title: Death Penalty: Good or BAD?

General Purpose: To Persuade
Specific Speech Purpose: To persuade my audience that the death penalty is a bad idea
Thesis Statement: The death penalty is a terrible form of punishment. The death penalty also
known as capital punishment isnt good for a society or an economy.
Introduction
I.
II.
III.

IV.
V.

What is the death penalty or formally known as capital punishment? Is it something that
we have control over or is it something thats out of our hands?
The death penalty or capital punishment is the execution of a person that has been
convicted of a capital crime.
What is considered to be a capital crime exactly? A capital crime is a murder or if
someone betrays their country. So when can a murder be considered bad enough for
someone to receive the death penalty?
So if someone kills a person in my family can I request the death penalty? But why
would I do that? There are so many things that are against killing another person.
The factors against the death penalty are so much greater than the factors for it

Transition: By a show of hands if someone was to kill a member in your immediate family what
would you want the course of action to be the death penalty or life in prison without the
possibility of parole?
Body
I.

The death penalty drains from other forms of crime control. When we kill someone
through our criminal justice process it costs a lot of money
a. The California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice conducted a
study and it states, Using conservative rough projections, the Commission
estimates the annual costs of the present system ($137 million per year), the
present system after implementation of the reforms is ($232.7 million dollars per
year), and a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration
instead of the death penalty is ($11.5 million dollars). (Lmoye, 2012)
i. Basically that means that is it more expensive to kill someone then it is to
put them in prison for the rest of their life
b. Now youre wondering how would that effect me? Its the government that going
to kill the person. Im not the one thats effected its the person and their family
i. The price differential between a life sentence and the death penalty is paid
how. We pay taxes to keep people alive on death row. So what makes you
think your taxes wouldnt being going up to execute a person.

Devin Stallings

09/24/2014

Transition: How do you feel about the death penalty now? Its hitting your pockets and you still
want it around? Maybe this will change your mind.
II.

How can something that can be so serious still find a way to continue to be one sided in
the racial aspect of life? So does this mean that racism is in our criminal justice process?
a. Since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants which is 77%
have been executed for killing white victims, even though African-Americans
make up about half of all homicide victims. (Lmoye, 2012)
i. What does that mean? Does anyone have an idea? It means that more
people have received capital punishment for killing a white person and
African-Americans are killed way more and they cannot receive the same
justice.
b. The death penalty is one of the most serious sanctions a person can receive. It is
as serious as when Jordan jumped from the free throw line to win the dunk
contest.

Transition: Yes I know how could I compare capital punishment to one of the greatest dunks of
all time? I know its not right its not. Maybe I should have used the Tom and Jerry and Tom is
the one that receives the unjust and Jerry is the opposite. I hope you kept up with that analogy.
III.

There have been a lot of people that have received the death penalty and were waiting to
be executed that were factually innocent of the charges brought against them.
a. Two half-brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown both African-American
were released on September 2, 2014. They were charged in 1984 with the rape
and murder of an 11 year old girl. When the crime happened McCollum was 19
and his brother Brown was 15. They were released because they both have
intellectual disabilities and couldnt be responsible for the crime. (DPIC, 2014)
b. As of September 3, 2014 there have been 146 exonerations in 26 different states.
So how can something so serious not be fully investigated by the prosecution.
(DPIC, 2014)

Transition: As Im nearing the conclusion of one of the greatest speeches you guys have ever
heard in the history of ever!!!
Conclusion
I.
II.

III.

The death penalty seems like it isnt being taken seriously by our government. This is
something that cannot continue to go on any longer.
Its sad that we seem to continue to go backwards then forward. We see our society
moving backwards day by day. And as hard as some try it seems like we wont be
satisfied until we all have to fight for our rights as people once again.
Now you have seen all of the major factors of the death penalty
a. Expensive
b. Racially biased

Devin Stallings

IV.

09/24/2014

c. Wrongful convictions
Im going to put the ball in your park and tell you to gather people and put an end to the
death penalty before our criminal justice system and process end up killing more innocent
people. Thank You.

Devin Stallings

09/24/2014

References:

Lmoye. "Death Penalty Facts." (n.d.): n. pag. Amnesty USA. AIUSA Death Penalty
Abolition Campaign, May 2012. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/DeathPenaltyFactsMay2012.pdf>.
DPIC. "Innocence and the Death Penalty." Death Penalty Information Center. N.p., 3
Sept. 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-deathpenalty>.