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Persuasive Speech Outline Essay

Decent Essays

Persuasive Speech Strategy
Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience that Capital Punishment does not deter crime and that it should be abolished.
Central Idea: Homicide rates are lower in non-death penalty states when compared to states with the death penalty.
Main Points: I. The death penalty has no deterrent effect. II. The costs of administrating capital punishment are prohibitive. III. States with the death penalty have higher murder rates than those without it.

Question of Policy: Should the Death Penalty be abolished?
Attention Getter: Attention Getter: Is it moral? Is it an efficient deterrent to crime? Is it allowable under the U.S constitution? These are questions one should ask when …show more content…

Body:
I. The death penalty has no deterrent effect
A. People commit murders largely in the heat of passion, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or because they are mentally ill, giving little or no thought to the possible consequences of their acts.
1. Claims that each execution deters a certain number of murders have been thoroughly discredited by social science research.
a. According to the economist’s voice, the few that do commit pre-meditated murders will be more affected with life in prison.
1. Being in prison for life is tough enough, life imprisonment breaks down one’s mental health which is more detrimental and serves more as a “payback” to the murderer. 2. Death row in essence is the “easy way out” for these criminals.

B. The time it takes for a prisoner to be executed has doubled since 2002.
1. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it now takes on average about 178 months (about 15 years) for an execution occurs.
2. If all this time wasn’t wasted, $3 million could have been saved as opposed spending $5 million to keep the prisoner on death row.
C. Unlike the general population of prisoners, those who await Death row remain in solitary confinement. 1. Death row inmate lives in a constant uncertainty of when they will be executed
a. This isolation and anxiety results in a sharp deterioration of their physical and mental status.

II. The costs of administering capital punishment are prohibitive.
A.

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