Persuasive Speech On Murder Is Murder

Brian has suffered from schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder; both are forms of mental illness. He has been struggling with it, since he was 14 years old, and sought treatment from a counselor since he was 17. He has always struggled with hearing voices whom he said were a higher power than him, and he had to obey them. He also suffered from hallucinations and had a history of violence. Brian, now twenty-one years old, has always admired his neighbor. They often discussed subjects that they had in common. One night this all changed; Brian tortured and killed his neighbor. He planned the murder out and went through with it. Later, he told prosecutors that the voices in his head told him everything he had to do and that if he didn’t do it, there would be …show more content…
They say that it would be cheaper to just put them to death and better our society. They may argue “murder is murder, a person has to pay for the crime that they committed.” However, what many people do not know is it actually costs more to put people to death than it does to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives. According to Forbes, it is 10 times more expensive to kill an inmate than to keep him or her alive. “The annual cost of the death penalty in the state of California is $137 million compared to the cost of lifetime incarceration of 11.5 million” (Erb). This is the same situation in every case, and people that argue this topic forget to take into account the amount of appeals a death penalty case can have and how much those costs add up. Murder is murder and criminals should have to pay for their crime, but the mentally ill should not be put to death. It’s not the cheapest way out, and is not humane to put an incompetent, mentally ill patient that does not understand why he or she are being put to