I. The death penalty does not deter crime and has no beneficial effect on murder rates.
A. Studies show that there’s no proven correlation between using the death penalty and deterrence of crime.
1. A New York Times survey demonstrated that the homicide rate in states with capital punishment have been 48% to 101% higher than those without the death penalty.
2. Many researchers say deterrence data is “fraught with technical and conceptual errors, including inappropriate methods of statistical analysis, and failures to consider all relevant factors that drive murder rates.”
B. The vast majority of law enforcement professionals surveyed agree that capital punishment does not deter violent crime.
1. A survey of police chiefs nationwide found they rank the death penalty
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The New York Department of Correctional Services estimated thatimplementing the death penalty would cost the state about $118 million annually.
2. In Texas, a death penalty case costs taxpayers an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years.
B. The funds used for the death penalty should be used towards other positive educational programs within the community.
1. State programs that successfully address the underlying, contributing factors to crime and violence already exist, but they do not receive sufficient resources.
2. Evidence-based research suggests that children who receive early education are less likely to become criminals, which not only benefits society, but also saves the state money.
III. The inevitability of factual, legal, and moral errors results in a system that must wrongly kill some innocent defendants.
A. The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that could never be rectified.
1. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 138 innocent men and women have been released from death row, including some who came within minutes of
These statistic, the death penalty will reduce further crimes, are used by some to claim that the death penalty is an ok method of punishment. This is not actually the case. Scientific studies have consistently failed to
“A recent study by Professor Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock of the University of Colorado found that 88% of the nation’s leading criminologists do not believe the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime. The study, Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of Leading Criminologists, published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Crimonology, concluded, “There is overwhelming consensus among America’s top criminologists that the empirical research conducted on the deterrence question fails to support the threat or use of the death penalty.” A previous study in 1996 had come to similar conclusions.”
a. Some lawmakers believe that a death sentence should not be handed down by a jury with a mental health evaluation.
A study by Professor Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock of the University of Colorado recently made, found that 88% of the nation’s leading criminologists do not believe the death penalty is an effective way to stop crime. The study by Lacock
About two thirds of the countries around the world have abolished capital punishment in law or in practice on the grounds that it really isn’t effective to crime (opposingviews.com). But a 2008 comprehensive review of capital punishment research since 1975 by Drexel University economist Bijou Yang and psychologist David Lester of Richard Stockton College of New Jersey concluded that the majority of studies that track effects over many years and across states or counties find a deterrent effect (usnews.com).
A study conducted by the Journal of Quantitative Criminology reveals that for every execution performed, fifteen murders take its place (Durlauf, et al). The study compiled execution statistics and murder rates across states in order to determine the efficacy of deterrence. Granted, executions do not directly lead to murders, but the data exposes the fact that the death penalty has not been successful in preventing them. In fact crime rates increase in states that resume the practice of the death penalty. For example, Florida had a twenty-eight percent increase in murder rates after executing a prisoner in 1979 for the first time after fifteen years (“White
The death penalty is one of the most controversed punishments in the United States. According to The Death Penalty Information Center, 88% of criminologist do not believe the death penalty is an effective deterrent. According to deterrence theory, criminals are no different from law abiding people. Individuals settle on their choices taking into account the net expenses and advantages of every option. There is a basis provided for analyzing how capital punishment should influence murder rates, according to the deterrence theory. Throughout the years, a few studies have shown a connection in the middle of executions and reductions in homicide rates.
It has been said that with the use of capital punishment, violent crimes will be reduced. This is the third argument. However, the opposition does not agree. There is no prove that the rates of violent crimes have been reduced. The opposition argues that capital punishment does not act as a deterrent for these crimes. They also argue that it is irreversible.
Over the years, people that have been sentenced to death have been exonerated due it later being proven that they were innocent but for others it was too late to get their freedom back because they had already been executed.
Over the years a theory known as the deterrence effect has been proposed to the world of capital punishment. People believe that if you do something wrong, in this case, kill someone, then you will be put to death therefore preventing you from committing that wrong act again. This theory also states that by viewing or hearing about your punishment then others around you will not follow in your footsteps which will decrease the number of criminal acts committed. Econometric studies have started a panel data in order to view the validity of this theory. One of their hugest studies examines the validity of this theory. One of their hugest studies examined 3,054 counties in the United States from 1977 and 1996. The studies concluded that
A common way to determine whether the death penalty had a deterrent effect always on the basis of the number of murders deterred for each convicted criminal that was actually executed (Winter, 2008). The approach to verify the empirical verification was to replicate the results of the original studies and did battery of robustness tests. While the later study showed that these approach failed to confirm the death penalty affects the murder rate.
Over the years the number of people executed due to the death penalty has increased; as of 2016, 38 people are executed each year (DPIC Staff). The death penalty is not something that our country should commemorate, it goes against what we are meant to follow. Now only does it contradict our laws, but it is very expensive, causes a great deal of emotional pain for families, and its method is inaccurate. Our country should put the death penalty to rest.
Adam Liptak, in his article “Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate” (2007), claims that the death penalty has a “deterrent effect” and is linked to lower murder rates. Liptak supports his claim by quantitative evidence and studies on crime rates, refuting the opposition’s arguments, and quoting authoritative evidence. His purpose is to settle the reoccurring debate on whether the death penalty does in fact prevent more murders and to help clear up misconceptions about the effectiveness of capital punishment. He adopts an academic tone (“Critics of the studies say they are based on faulty premises, insufficient data, and flawed methodologies”) for the scholars and specialists who are following the “intense new debate about one of the central
Relevance link: While studies show that states without the death penalty have a lower crime rate, no one can be certain that it does
Paul H. Rubin, PhD, Professor of Economics at Emory University wrote in his testimony, “The modern refereed studies have consistently shown that capital punishment has a strong deterrent effect, with each execution deterring between 3 and 18 murders” (Dezhbakhsh).