when you set the bar low enough for them to happen. Our justice system needs to be held to a higher standard. There's no need to outlaw the death penalty, just make sure that those you use it on are guilty beyond any shadow of a doubt. NO innocent person should ever face the death penalty metted out by a system that is supposed to protect the innocent.
Now keep in mind I am against the death penalty. Not because I shrink from an "eye for an eye" philosophy, but I find it horrific that even one innocent person should ever be executed... and there is proof that innocent people have been executed. I view this as murder by the state.
But on the other hand...
... 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.
The reports have horrified death penalty opponents and several scientists, who vigorously question the data and its implications.
"Science does really draw a conclusion. It did. There is no question about it," said Naci Mocan, an economics professor at the University of Colorado at Denver. "The conclusion is there is a deterrent effect."
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. "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?"
Statistical studies like his are among a dozen papers since 2001 that capital punishment has deterrent effects. They all explore the same basic theory ? if the cost of something (be it the purchase of an apple or the act of killing someone) becomes too high, people will change their behavior (forego apples or shy from murder).
To explore the question, they look at executions and homicides, by year and by state or county, trying to tease out the impact of the death penalty on homicides by accounting for other factors, such as unemployment data and per capita income, the probabilities of arrest and conviction, and more.
Among the conclusions:
? 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.
Now, I have publicly proposed before that if the death penalty is to act as effectively as possible as a deterrent, that all executions should be held publicly. Not only that they should be public but that they should be televised across all TV channels (cable, network, local, et al) if the justification for use of the penalty is that it is a deterrent to others.
Then again, like I say, if one innocent person is killed by the state in the name of justice... it is as if we all have committed murder.
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