Affirmative Constructive Speech Resolved that the Illinois state legislature should reinstate capital punishment. Right before leaving office and one day before the opening statements of the racketeering trial of his former chief of staff were to begin, Governor Ryan decided to commute the sentence of all 167 condemned inmates in Illinois to life in prison. It has been said by many government officials that this order was just a "smoke screen" to deflect attention from a …showed first 75 words of 1104 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1104 total…there was no possibility of a death sentence. Let me leave you with this thought. When we protect guilty lives, we give up innocent lives in exchange. If the death penalty is not reinstated, convicted criminals will commit approximately 84,800 violent crimes this year. About 13,200 of those are murders and 12,900 are rapes. If there is no death penalty there is a great chance that one of you will become part of these horrifying statistics. Thank you.