AS90857: SPEAKING – 3 CREDITS

 

1957, Mt Eden prison. The last time and place New Zealand saw a legal execution on its soil before Capital punishment was abolished. This man was Walter Bolton who may be related to troy Bolton in high school musical, he poisoned his wife a year earlier and was sentenced to death by hanging . Now days a murderer like Walter can be in the same work place as you after serving only 17 years for such a heinous crime. Things have to change

Hi i’m Max and i’m here to convince you that New Zealand should bring back Capital Punishment and keep dangerous people off the streets for good.

Firstly what is capital punishment. Capital Punishment more commonly known as the Death Penalty first originated in 1575, it is the act of legally authorized killing someone as a form of punishment.

As of 2016 there are still 58 countries that carry out capital punishment. America, Japan, China, Jamaica to name a few. up until 1989 Capital Punishment was still legal in New Zealand. 30 years after the last execution it was formally abolished. police alone are not enough to deter crime such as murder. over the past 10 years New Zealand has implemented proactive police policies in an atempt to lower crimes rates which have shown to be detrimental in the minority communities increasing crime rates intern. America which has had this system for a long time still has 5 times the crime rate of New Zealand showing that this system isn’t enough to prevent crime.

So why the Death penalty? well on average in several states of america that still allow such punishment it costs the taxpayer roughly 2 million dollars per case. that might seem very expensive which it is, but it is only the fraction of the price for sentencing a criminal to life without parole at an estimated 1.2 to 3.6 million dollars more per case. that means it could cost our government 5.6 million dollars to sentence someone for life. That could be put to better use like upgrading the lower docile schools all over the country which might even reduce the number of life sentences in the future. just think of all the food we would save not having to feed an inmate for 50 years till their sentence ends.

there goes an analogy which states that there is a cliff at a town and people tend to fall off it. They decide to put a ambulance at the bottom so as soon as someone falls they can be helped. They then decide to put a fence at the top to prevent the fall all togeather. In this context the  cliff is the person spiraling out of control until the hit the ground and ambulance which is prison. So upgrading the schools and getting people a good education as well as implementing a form of order by using death penalty would be the fence which would lower the amount of people falling into that spiral and ending up with a life sentence.

All of New Zealand’s 89 Executions have been carried out by hanging. some of which were public. I believe that although the person has taken ones life they should go out in a calmer way in the form of a lethal injection. Some may say that this form of punishment is very inhumane. I would agree but as Margret Thatcher said. People who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that that death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.

most if not all of you will have heard the saying an eye for an eye. unfortunately in this society this saying means an eye for a bed food and shelter for the rest of your life. so what is it. are we going to let these monsters live after taking something so amazing as a life, or are we going to do something about it and stop them from ever doing it again. Lets bring back Capital Punishment and clean the streets of New Zealand for good.