Minutes for Meeting 5

Meeting 5: Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Attendees:
Abe R., Alana C., Alex W., Anna F., Ashley V., Austin S., Brendan B., Chloe W., Colbie C., Dennis W., Elli T., Gabriel V., Helen B., Ian M., Isaac H., Jacob L., Lindsey S., Logan T., Rebecca B., Tyler H.
Secretary:
Elli T.
Minutes:
Debate #3:

The whole meeting was spent debating about the death penalty.
- Supporters for the death penalty: Abe, Ashley, Colbie, Elli, Helen, Ian, Logan
- Evidence for the death penalty:
  - Abe: "In jail, you [the prisoners] would have a free place to live, free food, and cable TV."
  - Ian: "What you do [killing] comes back to you."
  - Ian: "If you're in prison, you can get out for good behavior."
  - Colbie: "Some people still commit crimes when they get out of jail."
  - Ian: "You're relying on two things. One, murderers feel remorse. And second, murderers think that police are intelligent."
  - Logan: "If they [a crime committer] did something that could be punished with the death penalty, then there would definitely be evidence for that."
  - Ian: "She [Alana] said that if you commit a crime, then you know that you'll be in a jail cell. That's not necessarily true."
  - Abe: "Would we want all of our murders and rapists in the same facilities as thieves?"
  - Abe: "If we don't give them [the prisoners] the death penalty, then we'll have people living in the same cells forever."
  - Logan: "They [jail guards] are trying to prevent people from escaping, instead of trying to prevent them from killing each other."
  - Ian: "It's conveying a message: You are not going to be happy if you commit murder."
  - Ashley: "Has anyone here considered [the possibility of] jail break?"
  - Colbie: "If that many murderers and rapists were together, then they could eventually overpower the guards."
  - Ian: "Let's take, for example, Brianna Denison. A lot of people wanted that guy off the streets."
  - Colbie: "If someone's dead, they can't hurt anyone anymore. They can't get out, they can't kill anyone, they're dead."
  - Abe: "Inmates do escape."
  - Logan: "You could disarm someone, if they were unsuspecting."
  - Logan: "You think that murderers don't know how to kill people?"
- Supporters against the death penalty: Alana, Alex, Anna, Austin, Beemer, Chloe, Dennis, Gabriel, Isaac, Jacob, Lindsey, Rebecca, Tyler
- Evidence against the death penalty:
  - Beemer: "Do you believe that we should kill people for minor things, like stealing and shoplifting?"
  - Alana: "Going to prison would make them [the crime committers] suffer more...In the death penalty, they suffer less because they don't have to live through the pain."
  - Beemer: "I'm saying that life in prison would be pretty bad because of all of the beating."
  - Alana: "Most murderers aren't living on the streets. Even if there were a murderer living on the street, they would probably much rather prefer the death penalty because they don't want the guilt hanging around."
  - Alana: "Do you know how many innocent people are put to death?"
  - Alana: "If you were innocent, and you were in jail, they could take you out of jail when they found that you were innocent. If you're dead, then they can't do that."
  - Beemer: "You don't want them [the crime committers] to be miserable; you just want them to be dead?"
  - Beemer: "It's the difference between killing someone who is innocent a third of the time and killing someone who's actually guilty."
  - Isaac: "It's not like they [the prisoners] get cable TV whenever they want."
  - Alana: "There are a lot of guards [in jails]."
  - Isaac: "How are these people [the prisoners] going to escape?"
- Winner: What do you think, based on the evidence above? See the results here!