Observation 2: The Toulmin Method

• Main claim: Capital punishment is the best way to protect the public from criminals like Ted Bundy
  
• One specific reason she states to uphold her argument: "capital punishment carries with it the risk that an innocent person will be executed; however, it is more important to protect innocent, would-be victims of convicted murderers"
• What makes this reason relevant: Ted Bundy was imprisoned and escaped not once, but twice. During the time he escaped he managed to kill several other people. If he had been given a lethal injection the first time he was charged, the deaths of those other women and young girl could have been prevented.
  
• What makes this reason good: Although an innocent person may die, more criminals will be eliminated with no chance of escape as Ted Bundy did and the general public will be safer.
  
• What evidence supports this reason: The author uses the example that innocent people die in automobile accidents everyday but we do not eliminate the use of cars. "Society has decided that the need for automobiles outweighs their threat to innocent life, so capital punishment is necessary for the safety and well-being of the general populace".
  
• List the counterargument/objection to this specific reason:
  
• Innocent people could die
• "the chances of a guilty person going free in our system are many times greater than those of an innocent person being convicted"
• many criminals would rather die than go to jail so why give them a punishment they would prefer
• there has been no proof that capital punishment lowers the murder rate
• killing someone because they have killed someone else does not justify the crime that was committed. Instead it puts us on the same level as a murderer (two wrongs do not make a right)
• What is her rebuttal to this objection: The need for legalizing the death penalty is more important than the risk of an innocent person dying because they were wrongly accused.