Article+Rebuttal Week 3 Bcom275

8/12/2019 Article+Rebuttal Week 3 Bcom275

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R u n n i n g h e a d : A R T I C L E R E B U T T A L P a g e | 1

Article Rebuttal

Tamara Walker

BCOM 275

May 6, 2013

Michelle Maldonado


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R u n n i n g h e a d : A R T I C L E R E B U T T A L P a g e | 2Article Rebuttal

The author argues that the average cost to support an inmate in prison is about twenty thousand

dollars per year. If you were to combine the number of inmates in prison, there are roughly about

143,838 people in prison for life or on death row combined, according to Gould.

It is said, that if criminals are to be kept in jail without the possibility of reforming back into

society, that it will cost approximately $2.9 billion dollars a year. So this means those murderers

and other criminals that cause harm to the public is waiting to supposedly be executed are

costing our nation money which could be used in other areas of greater importance. There is

much to be said about the death penalty, but does cost out way justice and if so is it really

serving the purpose it is designed for? If cost is what decides who lives and who dies, then it

seems the nation will be bankrupt for life because we do not implement what works for the sake

of the nation.

Gould also argues that the Bible talks about killing in cold blood and the death penalty is

not committing cold blooded murder, but simply removing a killer from society so he or she is

not released back into society where they could possibly cause more harm.

Rebuttal

In the 1976 Gregg verses Georgia case the United States Supreme Court endorsed capital

punishment declaring that executions save lives by discouraging manslaughter (U.S. Supreme

Court 1976). Since the restoration of Capital Punishment the cost of Capital punishment has

significantly increased; in every state that facilitates and maintains the death penalty they can


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R u n n i n g h e a d : A R T I C L E R E B U T T A L P a g e | 3expect to spend anywhere from 2.5 million to 5 million dollars per offender in execution

expenses (Fagan 2013).

In California alone there are approximately 700 offenders on death row who have yet to

be put to death because they are in the process of accessing their legal rights to appeal their

sentencing. This means the state of California is spending about 1.7 billion to 3.5 billion dollars

on a restored 1976 method citing that the death penalty saves lives. This method has resulted in

and will continue to result in the laying off of police officers and correctional personnel, the

early release of prisoners, clogged courts, tax increases, school closers and the loss of many other

needed programs. The loss of our protector and cuts and losses in funding crime has been

steadily increasing. Capital punishment is not working and our State legislative and judicial

system is hurting the innocent by throwing away our hard earned cash into a system or method

that no longer works.


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Reference

Gould, E. (November 2012). PRO: Death penalty best way to deal with violent criminals.

Retrieved fromhttp://www.wvgazette.com/Entertainment/FlipSide/201011050957

Dieter, R. C. What Politicians Don't Say About the High Costs of the Death Penalty. Retrieved

fromhttp://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter1.html

Fagan, J. A. (2013). Capital Punishment: Deterrent Effects & Capital Costs.Retrieved from

https://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/communications/reports/summer06/capitalpunish
http://www.wvgazette.com/Entertainment/FlipSide/201011050957http://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter1.htmlhttp://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter1.htmlhttp://www.wvgazette.com/Entertainment/FlipSide/201011050957

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Article+Rebuttal Week 3 Bcom275