- Position‹2 of 3›
- Joe Biden will be better for criminal justice
- Argument1 of 3›
Donald Trump has a poor record on criminal justice
Trump has called for an expansion of the death penalty, and has refused to apologise for calling for the Central Park Five to face the death penalty. He is rash and reckless on criminal justice issues.
The argument
Before entering politics, Trump made several concerning interventions on criminal justice issues. In 1989, following the rape and assault of a jogger in New York City, Trump called for the death penalty for five black teenagers known as the Central Park Five. They were later released from prison after being found innocent - Trump has not apologised. He is a vocal supporter of the death penalty, and has praised authorities in China, Singapore and the Philippines for executing drug dealers. In office, Trump has carried out more federal executions in 2020 than in the last 57 years combined. The case of the Central Park Five demonstrates that expanding the death penalty would lead to the wrongful killing of innocent individuals, which is exactly what criminal justice systems should prevent from happening. Joe Biden wants to end the death penalty, and would manage the US criminal justice system responsibly.
Premises
Counter-arguments
The death penalty is an effective deterrent against committing the most abhorrent crimes. It is important to trust that the criminal justice system will arrive at the correct verdict.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Statements and endorsements evidence stated positions rather than a record in office, and the argument moves between the two. The Central Park Five advertisement was a private citizen's intervention decades before he held any office. [Rejecting P2] The increase in federal executions is documented, but federal cases are a small fraction of capital sentences, the great majority of which are handled by states. The premise also treats the wrongful-conviction risk as demonstrated by a case in which no execution took place. [Rejecting P3] Opposition to the death penalty is one criminal-justice position among many, and the premise generalises from it to overall competence. It also passes over the parts of both records that cut the other way — the First Step Act on one side, a long legislative history on crime bills on the other. [Rejecting C] A comparative conclusion requires both records assessed on the same terms. The argument examines one candidate in detail and asserts the other, which cannot establish which of them would be better.