This document discusses arguments for and against capital punishment. It notes that the death penalty is legal in 32 US states for first-degree murder with aggravating circumstances. Supporting arguments include that it delivers justice for heinous crimes, deters future murders by convicted killers, and prevents innocent lives from being lost to murderers who would otherwise still be alive. Opposing arguments are that some notorious murderers have avoided the death penalty and that capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life imprisonment. Studies on whether it deters murders more effectively have reached different conclusions.

1. Capital Punishment
Arianna Estrada & Alicia Alcasas

2. Right Type of Punishment
● What is the Death Penalty?
○ Capital Punishment is legal in 32 states
● Who gets the Death Penalty
○ In all states where the death penalty is legal, to be
considered for the death penalty, the defendant
must have committed 1st degree murder with
several aggravated circumstances

3. By Law
● Define 1st degree murder
○ “unlawfull killing that is both willfull and premeditated”
○ committed with depraved indifference for human life
○ a murder that was done after planning/ “lying in wait”
That isn’t enough
● Aggravated Circumstances need to be coupled with 1st
degree murder, these include: arson, burglary,
kidnapping, rape, and robbery

4. Mindless Killing?
● Doesn’t seek to kill just anyone, Capital Punishment
serves to deliver justice for only the most heinous of
crimes
● Since 1976, 1398 death sentences have been followed
through with
○ 36 people a year
○ thousands of murders in the first degree are
committed each year
The Bureau of Justice Statistics

5. Current Death Row Inmates
● Orlando Hall: Abducted, raped, beat, and murdered a
16-year-old female in Ft. Worth.
● Dustin Honken: Murder of two girls, ages 10 and 6;
witnesses to the murder of their mother. Honken
received a life sentence for the mother's murder.
● Lisa Montgomery: Kidnapped and killed a woman and
stole her unborn baby, claiming the baby was hers.
Death Penalty Information Center

6. Not What You Think
● Those put to death are truly the
worst of the worst
Yet we still have many notoriously brutal
murderers who continued to live after being
proven guilty
Jeffrey Dahmer, Lesley Bailey, Alberto De
Salvo,John Geoghan, Charles Manson

7. By the People for the People
● In the court of law, decided upon a Grand Jury the
people, the state, and the court system have come
together to decide that the defendant gets the
sentencing that he/she deserves
● A decision that wouldn’t have had to be made

9. As a Deterrent
“Within the advocacy community and legal scholars who
are not as statistically adept, they will tell you it’s still an
open question. Among the small number of economists at
leading universities whose bread and butter is statistical
analysis, the argument is finished”
Justin Wolfers,
Economist at Wharton School of Business U.P

10. Studies
● Between 3 and 18 lives would be saved by the
execution per convicted killer
○ Wrongfully dismissed from public policy
● Emory University studies averaged at deterrence of 18
deaths in a 2003 nationwide study
○ A study included in Paul Stam’s Speaker Pro
Tempore case collection

11. Studies Cont.
● Two Studies by Paul Zimmerman- Federal
Communications Commission Economist
● Utilized State-level information from 1978 to 1997
o Comparison analytics
● Found that each additional execution, on average
results in 14 fewer murders

12. Thinking Behind Murder
● Criminals are no different than law abiding citizens
● Criminals “rationally maximize their own self-interest
subject to constraints that they face in the
marketplace or elsewhere” - The Economics of Crime
(Rubin)
● Net costs and benefits
● Cost > Benefit?

13. Pricing
● Full cost to taxpayers? $39 Billion
● For California the Corrections Department Prison costs
a total of $7,932,388,000 more than 3x the second
highest
● Has the largest prison population, but only by 10,000
○ Average Annual Cost per inmate $47,421
○ Average cost for college $41, 830 (College Board)

14. The Real Innocent
● The Death Penalty prevents the possible death of other
innocent people
● According to a study in 2006 by professors at The
University of Houston, the Illinois moratorium in 2000
can be linked to 150 additional homicides over the
following 4 years
○ Roberto Marchesini and Dale O. Cloninger

15. “It is very disturbing to take someone’s life, even a murderer’s
life, but sometimes highly unpleasant actions are necessary to
deter even worse behavior that takes the lives of innocent
victims.” Gary S Becker, Nobel Laureate

16. The Costs
● The Death Penalty Costs More
○ In What Terms?
● Paying to deliver justice or pay for a killer to continue
living unlike the victim
○ Appeals process
○ Prison Security
○ Food
○ Education
○ Social Services

17. Over Budget
● January 2012 report by VERA- Institute of Justice
○ survey completed from correction departments from
40 states
● Taxpayers may incur additional/ indirect cost- social
services, child welfare, and government agencies
● Findings- total taxpayer cost of the average US prison
was 13.9% higher than the costs represented by their
combined corrections budget

18. The Sentencing Project
● 1 in 9 prisoners serve a life sentence
o Most for drug crimes
o Some for heinous murder
● How much strain can be taken off?