Speech to Persuade Members of Brazilian Congress That the Death Penalty Policy Should Not Be Used in Brazil

Good evening Ladies, Gentlemen and Members of Brazilian Congress.

I have come here today as a representative of the A.D.P.A., Anti-Death Penalty Association*, to tell you why Brazil must not adopt the death penalty. Due to the murderers which appear every day on the news, the population of Brazil has considered the possibility that the death penalty might be the best solution. My answer to these people is “No”.

According to Amnesty International, only last year, 1146 prisoners were executed in twenty-eight different countries which adopt the death penalty. This is an enormous figure. In the USA, 65 prisoners were executed last year, giving a total of 885 prisoners executed since the death penalty was resumed in 1977. So much for the “free” country which America claims to be.

From the 1146 executions last year, 726 of them were in China, 63% of all the executions. However, these are only the cases known to Amnesty International. It is believed that China executes nearly 10,000 people per year. Some of these executions are for unjust reasons such as economic crimes. If Brazil adopts the death penalty, in a few decades things might get out of hand like in China and people might be executed for a more “petty” crime such as stealing.

Brazil is a very religious country. In fact, it is the biggest Roman Catholic country in the world. As all of you probably know, the fifth of the Ten Commandments says: “Thou shall not kill”. By executing the prisoners, wouldn’t we be going against the Ten Commandments? By executing prisoners, you only make society more brutal and spread the cycle of violence.

Also, the Bible promotes the act of forgiveness. If you believe in that, don’t you think that murderers deserve a second chance after spending several decades probably contemplating their crime in prison? Don’t you think that thirty years is enough punishment? The victim’s family will probably forgive the murderer after so much time, as after decades they will be well over their relative’s death.

The best solution for serial killers and murderers of the type is to isolate them from other prisoners in solitary confinement with a life sentence. However, to guarantee no escape, the Brazilian government has to build newer and better penitentiaries, with modern cameras and not allow prisoners to encounter often and definitely give severe punishments for prisoners with mobile phones, something which many prisoners have in Brazil. This makes the population feel safer without the need of the death penalty.

As well as improving the prisons in Brazil, we also need psychologists in the prisons. The purpose of this would be to help the murderers to rehabilitate, so that they can go back into society and be just a normal person like you and me, without causing a threat to