tions.
(_c_) It makes punishment uncertain.
(1) Many criminals are acquitted who would
be convicted if the penalty were imprisonment.
(_d_) It is not reformatory.

II. Capital punishment is immoral.
(_a_) It rests on the old idea of retribution.
(_b_) It tends to weaken the sacredness of human life.
(_c_) It endangers the lives of innocent people.
(_d_) Executions and the sensational newspaper
accounts which follow have a corrupting influence.

III. Capital punishment is unjust.
(_a_) Its mistakes are irremediable.
(_b_) Many men are criminals from force of
circumstances.
(1) From heredity.
(2) From environment.
(_c_) Inequalities in administration are marked.
(1) In some states men are hung, in others
imprisoned for the same crime.

[Footnote 1: Taken from Brookings and Ringwalt: _Briefs for Debate_,
Longmans, Green and Co., where specific references of material for
many of the topics are given, as well as general references for the
entire subject.]

(2) Many jurors have conscientious scruples
against condemning a man to death.
(3) Men of wealth and influence are rarely
convicted.

IV. The abolition of capital punishment has been followed
by satisfactory results,
(_a_) In Europe.
(1) Russia.
(2) Switzerland.
(3) Portugal.
(4) Belgium.
(5) Holland.
(6) Finland.
(_b_) In the United States.
(1) Michigan.
(2) Rhode Island.
(3) Maine.
(4) Wisconsin.

_Brief for the Negative_

I. Capital punishment is permissible.
(_a_) It has the sanction of the Bible.
(1) Genesis ix, 2-6.
(_b_) It has the sanction of history.
(1) It has been in vogue since the beginning
of the world.
(_c_) It has the sanction of reason.
(1) The most fitting punishment is one equal
and similar to the injury inflicted.

II. Capital punishment is expedient.
(_a_) It is necessary to protect society from anarchy
and private revenge.
(1) Death is the strongest preventative of
crime.
(_b_) No sufficient substitute has been offered.
(1) Life imprisonment is a failure.
(2) Few serve the sentence.
(_c_) Its abolition has not been successful.
(1) In Rhode Island.
(2) In Michigan.
III. The objections made to capital punishment are not
sound.
(_a_) Prisons are not refor