News out today that there have been a series of studies over the last few years showing that the death penalty actually deters crime.

What gets little notice, however, is a series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument — whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analyses say yes. They count between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer.
[…]
A 2003 study he co-authored, and a 2006 study that re-examined the data, found that each execution results in five fewer homicides, and commuting a death sentence means five more homicides.

Probably just another report by some pro-death penalty wacko.

Wrong.

“The results are robust, they don’t really go away,” he said. “I oppose the death penalty. But my results show that the death penalty (deters) — what am I going to do, hide them?”

At the very least, the evidence is clear that when the death penalty is carried out on convicted murderers… they don’t become repeat offenders. If the thought of that deters others, well that’s just gravy.

1. […] Blogger Responses: Run To Win, Texas Rainmaker, Liberal Values […]

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2. […] All politics, ideologies, and hurt feelings aside, shouldn’t the protection of the public be the second most important consideration in a murder case, coming just behind a correct determination of guilt? As the Texas Rainmaker says, there’s no doubt the death penalty deters repeat offenders. […]

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3. The protection of the public is the most important consideration, not the second most. Correct determination of guilt is something to strive for always, but I’d rather we execute a few suspects by mistake occasionally than let murderers threaten the rest of us. Hey, they’re probably guilty of something else anyway.

   Comment by Sane View — 3:49 pm
   

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