• Each execution deters an average of 18 murders, according to a 2003 nationwide study by professors at Emory University. (Other studies have estimated the deterred murders per execution at three, five and 14).
• The Illinois moratorium on executions in 2000 led to 150 additional homicides over four years following, according to a 2006 study by professors at the University of Houston.
• Speeding up executions would strengthen the deterrent effect. For every 2.75 years cut from time spent on death row, one murder would be prevented, according to a 2004 study by an Emory University professor.
See more reaction to this here.  The debate isn’t over on this, nor should it be, but I do believe that if the dp were carried out in a more timely fashion, with absolute proof of guilt, we would see crime numbers drop at the violent level. (Murder, rape/totrture etc.)
50- so the alternative is to lock that innocent person up for the rest of their life? Or do we just stop jailing murderers?
“In dubio pro reo!”
And that is exactly how the system is set up. What is your point?
“If there is a doubt in the guilt of somebody and the system to decide on this guilt is not perfect, it is absolutely not tolerable that such an imperfect system offers the result to kill somebody innocent!”
None of the accused would ever be convicted, ever, using this standard for anything. The standard is “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
51,52- The alternative is to lock in the assumingly guilty person either for the rest of his life or until the opposite is proven.
Nobody says, that there shall be no punishment/verdict at all, but obviously death penalty belongs to those ones that can’t be reversed.
“51,52- The alternative is to lock in the assumingly guilty person either for the rest of his life or until the opposite is proven.”
No, that isn’t an alternative. That does not outweigh the pro’s of maintaining the death sentence.
54- “That does not outweigh the pro’s of maintaining the death sentence.”
That is your opinion… The alternative of a life sentence has the ultimate pro to make sure that nobody innocent is murdered by the state. The protection of life should always count more than the idea of punishment! The latter one will bring no victim back to life…
“The alternative of a life sentence has the ultimate pro to make sure that nobody innocent is murdered by the state. The protection of life should always count more than the idea of punishment! The latter one will bring no victim back to life:”
That is your opinion. Taking a person’s freedom is much worse than taking a person’s life. Like taking a person’s life, once taken that freedom can not be given back. It is a sad commentary on our society, one that covets being self centered over that of being a part of a community.
But that is a rant for another day…
If what you say were true then you would favor the death penalty, as it is a deterent that saves more lives than it maginally takes.
55- so we don’t put them to death, we just keep an innocent person in jail?
“So we don’t put them to death, we just keep an innocent person in jail?”
Sure- becasue imprisoning someone for life and allowing them to slowly die in jail is much more humane than the death penalty.
There are things in this world more precious than living.
56- “Taking a person’s freedom is much worse than taking a person’s life.”
So these few poor fellows who protest until the end and write one mercy petition after another and sometimes also claim that they are innocent, those are just a bunch of misled sheep, who don’t know that they were better off dead?
59- As you have been advised, study the justice system in this country and take the time to fully study the subject. You are just going in circles now.
With the DNA and the forensics they have now, the possibility of an innocent person being executed is effectively zero. That takes away the one argument the anti-DP side had that held water.
Does it deter crime? Even simple common sense tells you it does. An executed killer will never, ever hurt anyone else again. And yes, they can get out of prison. By mistake, by order of some activist judge, or whatever. There are documented cases of once-condemned criminals who have been released only to murder again.
No valid argument remains against the DP. I say review all pending cases using DNA forensics to confirm, then run ‘em through assembly-line style.
I do not understand why some people say that the death penalty deters crime. It doesn’t! I live in France, a country of about 60 million people, a country which abolished the death penalty in 1981; and yet there are far less murders here than in the city of New York! The conclusion I draw from this is that there is something wrong with the American way of life. Too much violence and too many guns. There’s strict gun control here too, and as I said, there are less murders than in one single big city in the USA.
So what’s wrong with America ?:-w