Persuasive Speech#3: Retaining the Death Penalty
Chris Pool
RetainingtheDeathPenaltyRevised.docxSheehan Fernando
May 13, 2018
Retaining the Death Penalty
I. Focus Section:
Thesis/Main Claim: The death penalty will be an act of retribution and bring closure and a fresh beginning to the families of violent crimes.
II. Introduction: Story about a man who committed a terrible crime and did not get the death penalty.
A. Abolishing the death penalty will cause people who committed heinous and unimaginable crimes feel as though they got away with it.
B. Many of you have seen injustice, even if it was just someone stealing a candy bar from a grocery store. Imagine the feeling of a family who have just learned that the person who murdered their child will not be receiving the death penalty. If that is not injustice, then I do not know what is.
C. Members of a civilized society cannot seek justice by their own hands. The state has to do it, so devastated victims’ families don’t seek punishment outside the law. That would be barbaric. (DP Opinion, 2016)
D. Spread the reason for the retaining the death penalty.
III. Need/Problem:
A. Murders will feel as if they can take a life without a large consequence.
B. Abolishing the death penalty cheapens the life of an innocent murder victim to say that society has no right to keep the murderer from ever killing again. (Stewart)
a. After committing several armed robberies and assaults, Robert Lee Massie brought his crime spree to an end with a murder in 1965. he was released for good behavior in 1978. But in January 1979, he struck again, murdering a liquor store clerk. (Streeter, 2001)
C. The only negative aspect of the death penalty is the risk of executing innocent people exists in any justice system
a. However, this is a problem that is not directly caused by the death penalty.
IV. Satisfaction/Solution: Get educated about the death penalty and those who have received it and support its stay in our law by voting for officials who choose to keep it.
A. As of December 2017, all 61 death row inmates have committed or been involved in the murder of one or more persons. (List of Death Row Inmates in the United States)
B. In a public pole, 33% of people voted that the death penalty should be allowed. (Death Penalty Information Center)
a. We need to explain to people that the death penalty for a murderer is the only fair sentence.
V. Visualization: No one wants to face the death penalty.
A. Keeping the death penalty will instill fear in murders and cause them to rethink their actions.
B. Although the victim and the victim's family cannot be restored to the status which preceded the murder, at least an execution brings closure to the murderer's crime.
C. However, it is possible that people who commit these heinous do not think about losing their own lives.
D. We cannot say that someone who has stolen a life should be able to continue living, unless of course there are certain conditions.
a. Of these conditions can be mental instability, and abuse.
E. Once the plan of retaining the death penalty is in place, I believe that most offenders will rethink their decisions and families will feel that some sort of justice has been done.
A. We need people to pay for their heinous crimes.
B. We need people Get educated about the death penalty and those who have received it and support its stay in our law.
C. If the plan is adopted, fear will be instilled in many murderers and cause them to rethink their actions.
D. Remember, that those who commit heinous and terrible crimes, must be unshed in accordance to their actions
Work Cited
KURT, STREETER | TIMES STAFF WRITER. “Convicted Killer Gets Wish Is Executed at San Quentin.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2001, articles.latimes.com/2001/mar/27/news/mn-43258.
“Steven D. Stewart, JD Biography.” Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed?, deathpenalty.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=006767.
Death Penalty Information Center , “What's New.” Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty | Death Penalty Information Center, deathpenaltyinfo.org/.
“List of Death Row Inmates in the United States.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 May 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_death_row_inmates_in_the_United_States.
Opinion, DP. “Evidence of the Need to Keep the Death Penalty.” The Denver Post, The Denver Post, 9 Sept. 2016, www.denverpost.com/2016/09/09/evidence-of-the-need-to-keep-the-death-penalty/.
