Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished?

On this week's show, we broadcasted the 13th Great Debate held as part of the biannual Great Debate Series that Boston University's College of Communications began in 1996. The topic of the 13th Great Debate was "Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished?"

Arguing in favor of abolishing the death penalty were Steven Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Sandhya Ganapathy, International Relations and Economics student at Boston University, and Dianna Rust-Tierney, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project and former Abolitionist of the Year. Their arguments focused on the ethical and moral questions linked with taking a human's life as well as the bias and financial costs behind the application of capital punishment.

The team arguing against the abolishment of capital punishment included John McAdams, Associate Professor at Marquette University and author of several articles supporting the death penalty, Zachary Coseglia, student at the School of Law at Boston University, and Ronald Rychlak, Associate Dean and Professor at the University of Mississippi Law Center. Issues they tackled in their arguments included the deterrence effects of capital punishment on crime, and the rights of crime victims.

Following the arguments from both sides, we heard comments from the participating audience and the voting results on who won the debate.