Capital Punishment for Kingpins

  A. The Kingpins sold illegal drugs to people (sometimes minors) who then participated in an illegal action

    1. Sometimes people die

    2. In any case, the people commit a crime through the Kingpin's actions

  B. Since the Kingpin caused others to commit crimes, the Kingpin is responsible for their crimes (sometimes minors) and thus, he should be punished (in this case, by Capital Punishment)

II. Why this argument does not make sense

  A. For an argument to be valid, it must be consistent in other cases

    1. This is not the case for this argument

    2. For example, kill self with fork

      a. If I kill myself with a fork

      b. This argument means that who ever sold me the fork is responsible

    3. A more serious example

      a. If I buy liquor and drink myself to death

        i. A more realistic example because of the negative connotation of liquor

        ii. Liquor has no "good" purpose, much like drugs

      b. With this reasoning it's the fault of the person that sold me the liquor

  B. This means that the main argument for Capital Punishment doesn't stack up

III. Why this argument is dangerous

  A. The main idea behind it is that if through your actions (whether directly or indirectly) you cause someone harm, you are responsible

  B. While this may sound good, it can be exploited

    1. An Extreme Example

      a. A man could simply be punished for any reason, even "inaction"

      b. For instance, if there are starving people and a man has plenty, then through the action of choosing not to support the starving people, the man is responsible for their suffering

    2. A More Reasonable Example

      a. A child is given a trampoline, then proceeds to bounce off of it (even if the child does it on purpose)

      b. Then who ever who gave the child a trampoline could potentially be prosecuted for their actions

IV. Conclusion

  A. While the argument seems reasonable for the given issue of Kingpins selling illegal substances to people (including minors), the argument begins to fall apart when applied to other things

  B. This is a problem because once someone uses the argument in one place, lawyers will point to the given case and use it as "proof" that they should win their case using the same argument

  C. The argument will be greatly exploited

  D. Thus, for now, Kingpins should not get the death penalty until a better argument is formed