"Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord" Has the death penalty stopped or cut

[cantstandbush]

murders, abductions etc in any of the states that have the death penalty. Are there rates lower than places that do not have the death penalty?

Isn't the death penalty more about vengeance and retribution than it is about deterrence to anything?

[SaveElmer]

1. It's ALL about vengeance...

Supporter try and come up with other reasoning inclduing "defending" society froom murderers, or that it is a deterrant to crime...

None of that is true of course...the reason for the death penalty is to seek retribution against the murderer...

The fact is there is no "moral" murder...just because the state is doing it with the protection of law does not make it more so!

[noahmijo]

2. vengeance is a lazy form of grief

[G_j]

3. "States Without the Death Penalty Fared Better "

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=12&did=168

Deterrence: States Without the Death Penalty Fared Better Over Past Decade

In the past ten years, the number of executions in the U.S. has increased while the murder rate has declined. Some commentators have maintained that the murder rate has dropped because of the increase in executions (see, e.g., W. Tucker, "Yes, the Death Penalty Deters," Wall St. Journal, June 21, 2002). However, during this decade the murder rate in non-death penalty states has remained consistently lower than the rate in states with the death penalty. (see Chart I, below).

These figures exclude Kansas and New York, which adopted the death penalty in 1994 and 1995 respectively. If these states are included in their proper categories, the results are even more dramatic:

As executions rose, states without the death penalty fared much better than states with the death penalty in reducing their murder rates. The gap between the murder rate in death penalty states and the non-death penalty states grew larger (as shown in Chart II). In 1990, the murder rates in these two groups were 4% apart. By 2000, the murder rate in the death penalty states was 35% higher than the rate in states without the death penalty. In 2001, the gap between non-death penalty states and states with the death penalty again grew, reaching 37%. For 2002, the number stands at 36%.
<snip>

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lots more here:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=12&did=167

example:
FBI Report Reveals Murder Rate Rise in the South
According to the FBI's Preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2002, the murder rate in the South increased by 2.1% while the murder rate in the Northeast decreased by almost 5%. The South accounts for 82% of all executions since 1976; the Northeast accounts for less than 1%. Read the report. (FBI Preliminary Uniform Crime Report 2002, June 16, 2003).

[cantstandbush]

9. Thanks for the post. n/t

[Walt Starr]

4. The DP is all about justice

The DP is imposed because the nature of the crime is so horrendous that the perpetrator must be removed from all levels of society. In fact, the crimes are deemed to be so horrendous that the perpetrator cannot even be allowed to exist within the human society of prison!

[G_j]

6. you left out the part

about affording a good lawyer

how many wealthy white folks are on death row?

don't you mean "Just-us"?

[Village Idiot]

5. The Death Penalty has CERTAINLY cut down on recidivism!

THAT'S what it is all about.

[BIG Sean]

7. Dead people don't Rape and Murder again...even in Prison...

If you are serving Life in Prison with no hope of Parole, then you are free to do what you want in Prison.

[slackmaster]

8. Of course it has, but there is a big problem with it

Obviously someone who gets executed will never commit another crime. In that respect the DP works as intended.

The problem is that people aren't quite smart enough or wise enough to be absolutely sure they aren't executing the wrong person. If that problem could be solved I'd be in favor of the DP. But I believe the fallibility of humans makes such a solution impossible, and that is why I oppose the DP.