GCSE speech on death penalty

Need honest advice about my GCSE english speaking.

This is it:

The year is 1989. Carlos Deluca has just been executed for murder. He pleads innocent. Around 2012 new evidence revealed the true killer and Carlos Deluca’s innocence. The year is 2004. Cameron Todd Willingham has just been executed for the death of his 3 young daughters. He pleads innocent. Around 2009 new evidence revealed flaws surrounding this investigation, all indicating he was after all innocent.
This is just the stories of 2 wrongfully executed people out of 200 people wrongfully sentenced to death in the US. Some have been exonerated since but these 2 men were not so lucky. The Justice System is not flawless. It is made up of humans and we all make mistakes. The problem is when they make mistakes, lives are lost. This overall shows how absolutely irreversible the death penalty is. Human error, rushed investigations, bias, and outdated forensic techniques can — and have — led to innocent people being killed by their own government. A system that knowingly carries this risk cannot claim to be just.

Wrongful conviction is one of the many reasons why I believe the death penalty should not be reinstated in England and why the world-wide abolition of capital punishment should happen.

This brings us to my main point ; How is the death penalty more effective than life imprisonment?
To argue that it brings closure or justice to the victim’s family rests on the idea of revenge which cannot forfeit justice. If the world was controlled by the notion of ‘an eye for an eye’ we would be stuck in a cycle of harm with a different perpetrator each time. Additionally by lowering ourselves to the level of a murderer, we become no better than the criminals we condemn. A government that executes its own citizens while claiming to be fair is contradicting its own principles. This makes the death penalty both hypocritical and ultimately ineffective. Two wrongs do not make a right and we cannot preach murder is wrong when sanctioned murder still occurs.

Beyond this, it is apparent the death penalty does not even deter crime as states which use the death penalty hold similar crime rates to those who do not use it. It is also a blatant contradiction to the human rights regarding the right to live and the right to be free of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment. Therefore this leads you to consider how can something which opposes more than 1 basic human right be allowed to occur.

The year is 2025. Iran has broken international law by sentencing girls as young as nine and boys as young as fifteen to execution. According to Amnesty International, at least 73 juvenile offenders have been executed between 2005 - 2015. This is an example of the death penalty being abused and the justice system’s corruption.

It is irreversible. It is ineffective. It is expensive. It is rooted in revenge, not justice. It violates human rights. And it depends on a justice system that has never been neutral. The same justice system which has repeatedly shown racial prejudice, economic inequalities and institutional bias. I leave you with the following message, capital punishment is not a sword of justice but a blindfolded axe. It strikes unevenly, falling hardest on the poor, minorities, and those who cannot afford strong legal defence. Justice should be a scale, not a weapon.

Reply 1

grah-

Hi, I did my speech last year and got a Distinction. Your speech seems great! I will say that, to a fair extent, execution is much more important than content. It's pretty wordy and so you might have a lot of pauses or stuttering on the day, which would probably result in a lower level. A lot of my friends achieved a Dist. with much more simple English that was spoken confidently while looking up at the audience. If you don't think that'll be an issue, then this will be more than fine! I hope that helps :smile:

Reply 2

Carrotketchup

Hello!
Your speech already looks great, and the rhetorical techniques you used really stand out. It’s clear you’ve put a lot of time and effort into it.

First of all, try not to stress too much. Plenty of people in my year got a distinction, and your speech definitely seems strong enough to do really well. The fact that you’re asking for advice already shows how motivated you are.

Last year I got a distinction, and one of my friends did too with a speech on the death penalty. She was incredibly nervous, to the point where the class had to put their heads down while she presented, but her practice really helped her push through. Your speech is a good length to roughly memorise, and the clear sections make it even easier.

The hardest part is looking up and making eye contact when you feel nervous, but even pretending to be confident can make a big difference. I’d also recommend avoiding a PowerPoint unless you are only using a couple of photos. A lot of people in my year ended up reading straight off their slides. Cue cards work much better. And remember to slow down and breathe.

Good luck, and keep in mind that it is totally okay if everything doesn’t go perfectly, even though I think you are likely to do really well.

Hope this helps!