Week 2 Post 1

This week we had a debate about capital punishment. I chose the side opposing the death penalty because I believe it is used too casually. Too often it seems we hear of new DNA evidence exonerating inmates on death row. It's my belief that the death penalty is justified only in a few rare cases and then only if the defendant is proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. Another concern I have with the death penalty is the availability (or lack thereof) and equality of inmates' access to DNA tests when their innocence may be proven. One thing that has always struck me as odd is that the public would prefer to sentence a prisoner to die a quick, supposedly painless death by lethal injection rather than sentence that prisoner to life without parole. Life in prison without parole has always seemed, to me, a much harsher punishment than a painless execution. Life in prison means that an inmates have little to do but sit and contemplate the crimes that landed them there. The difficult part of the debate came when we had to argue the opposing side. I now had to argue in favor of capital punishment. Initially I could think of no way to do so, but I eventually settled on an economical argument. Surely, I contended, it must be more economically practical to terminate a prisoner rather than paying year after year to keep said prisoner incarcerated.