Death Penalty Outline

Madison Etheridge
Persuasive Speech
SPH 2341-01
Dr. Patterson
22 April 2014
Death Penalty and North Carolina
I.
Introduction
A.) Attention Getter: Imagine if you knew exactly when you were going to die, right down
to the date and time. What would you do? Imagine the day of your death looking through
a glass window seeing your mom and dad crying because this is the day they will lose a
child. Now I want everyone to imagine that it was someone like me or you who put them
there because its a jury who are the deciding factors of the capital punishment. Good
afternoon everyone my name is Madison Etheridge and I did my persuasive speech on the
death penalty and I hope after my presentation to encourage everyone to sign my policy
for the first step to end the death penalty in North Carolina and then to eventually pass
this as a bill to congress to make a national law.
B.) Audience Relationship: The information I present relates to everyone, to end someones
life based on a jury say so is no different than killing someone in cold blood because you
felt like it. To be completely honest we are the ones who are funding it because our taxes
go into their budget.
C.) Central Idea: Today I am going to convince the audience to sign my petition to end the
death penalty in North Carolina and ask for your help to make this a national law.
II.
Body
A) The death penalty is racially biased and overwhelming majority of the defendants (77%)
have been executed for killing white Americans. Its seems like every time the TV is
turned on there is another African American who has been killed and the murderer has
been caught with the weapon practically in their hands, but somehow there is never any
justice at all. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org most of the African Americans who are
currently serving on death row deals with drug deal gone bad, and the whites who
currently serve is because the killing of other whites. A law professor name David Baldus
and statistician George Woodworth conducted analysis on the death penalty and race
which reveals that the odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times (3.9)
higher if the defendant is black.
(http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dieswho-decides)
B) The death penalty is not efficient according to FBI data in 2008 the 14 states without the
capital punishment had rate at or below the national rate. In 1976 when the capital
punishment was put back in place, the overall goal was to lower the amount of crime that
was happening. Frankly the only state to be having the most problem was Texas where
37% of the executions in America were from them. This makes you wonder if by killing
all these people what exactly it has solved if the problem continues. There is no point in
continuing with something that simply just does not work.
(http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/DeathPenaltyFactsMay2012.pdf)
C) The death penalty is frankly unfair almost all of the death row inmates could not afford
representation so someone had to be appointed to them. Public defenders are so backed
up that they can barely remember their clients name, so how are they supposed to defend
their clients properly with asking the right questions and making sure there getting the
justice they deserve. This is also how there were 140 people who were released from
death row because they were wrongfully convicted due to evidence that had been
suppressed and then re surfaced or lawyers not defending their clients to the best of their
abilities.
III.
Conclusion
Now I hope by hearing my presentation that I have convinced you all to sign my petition to the
first step of ending the penalty. With first North Carolina and then eventually taking it nationally,
I hoped that I proved that the death penalty if not helping us then it is just hurting us and now is
the time to take a stance for us and say No to the death penalty. Thank You
IV.
References
(http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/federal-death-row-prisoners)
(http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-whodies-who-decides)
(http://www.ncadp.org/page/s/pledge-to-join-the-movement)

Death Penalty Outline

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Death Penalty Outline

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Death Penalty Outline

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Madison Etheridge

You might also like