Reply #6: Show me where and how the death penalty acts as a deterent

[MadHound]

Yes, the death penalty would prevent the perp from commiting anymore murders on the outside, but so does life imprisonment. And better work by prison guards would prevent the perp from commiting murder on the inside, but most people who kill on the inside weren't put in for murder in the first place. Most death row inmates are kept on death row, in isolation just for that reason. And the deterent value of the death penalty is zip, zero, nada. If somebody wants to kill, they're going to kill whether it is in a death penalty state or not.

So how does the death penalty prevent murder?

And as you say, even a well run death penalty will make a few mistakes. Those mistakes are human lives. Are those mistakes worth it? Are we supposed to accept the death of innocents as part of the "greater good"?

The death penalty is nothing but state sponsored murder, one whose blood is on all of our hands.