2 I stand before you today to discuss the issue of capital punishment. Should the death penalty be administered to those who are deemed guilty of murder in a court of law? Based upon your answers to my class survey, if this decision were left up to this class, 75 percent of you would sentence the guilty defendant to death by way of lethal gas, lethal injection, hanging, or electrocution.

3 In my speech, I want to persuade you to reassess your view of capital punishment. My arguments will address the following issues relative to capital punishment: the injustice of capital punishment, the immorality of capital punishment, and capital punishment as a deterrent to crime. First of a

ll, allow me to discuss the injustice of capital punishment.

9 But there is yet a third issue that we must confront, and that is whether capital punishment is an effective deterrent to crime. And this is a very controversial point with strong opinions on both sides. In truth, the small number of executions in the United States in recent years makes it hard to judge the value of capital punishment as a deterrent. It may be that the death penalty deters crime, but there is no clear-cut evidence which proves that it does. As the National Academy of Science concluded in its analysis of the death penalty, and I quote, "Available studies provide no useful evidence on the deterrent effect of capital punishment."

7 The immorality of capital punishment is not a matter of statistics or hard scientific fact. Instead, it is a matter of belief. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." The Bible does not say, "Thou shalt not kill except in cases of murder, treason or capital crimes." It simply says, "Thou shalt not kill."

6 In addition to being discriminatory, capital punishment is also immoral. In fact, one reason why capital punishment is immoral is because it is discriminatory. This was stated especially well by Daniel Hoye, General Secretary of the United States Catholic Conference. "The system under which criminals are sentenced," he says, "is such that race often plays a prominent role in determining whether they will live or die. The fact that capital punishment is applied in a racially discriminatory way has been one of the reasons for our continued opposition on moral

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