Should the U.S. Abolish the Death Penalty?

• “Yes”

  

  “The Death Penalty is a Denial of Human Rights”

• “Objection”

  

  “America is NOT a Rogue State”
  

  Response

America is NOT a Rogue State

Joshua Marquis

District Attorney, Media Commentator

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Recommend (2) Comments (1)

Many democracies maintain capital punishment, not the least being India and Japan. The death penalty was abolished in Europe and Euro-centric countries because the European Union made abolition an absolute prerequiste to membership.

Polls of most western European counties show the people of those nations agree with most Americans that the death penalty is appropriate in the worst murders. 

Even some of the states that abolished capital punishment still reserve it as a possibility for war crimes or crimes against humanity, such as the execution of Nazi war criminals during the Nurenberg Trials in the late 1940s.

Response

The U.S. in in Bad Company

Amnesty International

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Recommend (0) Comments (1)

Only a handful of countries still execute more prisoners each year than the U.S., including countries such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.  Is this the company that we want to keep?

Next Argument

"Yes" Amnesty

• The Death Penalty is a Denial of Human Rights
  7
• The Death Penalty Makes Too Many Mistakes
  9
• The Death Penalty Costs More
  6
• The American Public is Moving Away from the Death Penalty
  5

"No" Josh Marquis

• How Many Innocent Victims are Too Many?
  8
• The Idea that Many People on Death Row are Innocent is Nonsense
  3

"No" Criminal Justice Legal Foundation

• An Enforced Death Penalty Saves Lives Through Deterrence
  3

Most Objections

• How Many Innocent Victims are Too Many?
  8
• The Idea that Many People on Death Row are Innocent is Nonsense
  3
• The Death Penalty is a Denial of Human Rights
  7
• The American Public is Moving Away from the Death Penalty
  5
• The Death Penalty Makes Too Many Mistakes
  9
• The Death Penalty Costs More
  6
• An Enforced Death Penalty Saves Lives Through Deterrence
  3

Should We End Executions?

• Yes
• No

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