Amnesty Group holds debate on the death penalty

On Wednesday, Gateways Amnesty Group held their first debate of 2010 in which a group of sixth form and U5 pupils discussed the death penalty. Amy McNamara chaired the debate in which Alice Spencer, Manasa Ramesh and Laura Marks proposed the motion: “This house believes that terrorists found guilty of killing of causing others to kill must suffer the death penalty.” Sherri Cramer, Kate Woodward and Noor Albazie formed the opposition team.
Manasa Ramesh opened the debate arguing that those who kill others in a terrorist act should be punished by death, with Sherri Cramer, for the opposition, countering that the death penalty was the ultimate denial of human rights. Once the teams had put their sides of the argument, probing questions were taken from the floor opening up the discussion further.
The debate was attended by a large audience of staff and students from all year groups and was observed by two members of Bardsey Debating and Literary Society – chairman Andrew Hamilton and secretary Alan Pease. After the debate, with the motion defeated, Mr Hamilton praised the audience contributions and both teams for the quality of their argument, saying: “A really good debate influences people’s thinking and changes their attitudes and that has been demonstrated here today.”