The death penalty

The death penalty is a deterrent. Why? for many reasons, death is the thing people fear most. And only 3% of criminals are crazy. The other 97% can be deterred. So if you got rid of that 97% crime would drop, a lot.

Deterrence theory:

According to deterrence theory, criminals are no different from law-abiding people. Criminals "rationally maximize their own self-interest (utility) subject to constraints (prices, incomes) that they face in the marketplace and elsewhere." Individuals make their decisions based on the net costs and benefits of each alternative. Thus, deterrence theory provides a basis for analyzing how capital punishment should influence murder rates. Over the years, several studies have demonstrated a link between executions and decreases in murder rates. In fact, studies done in recent years, using sophisticated panel data methods, consistently demonstrate a strong link between executions and reduced murder incidents. [1]


So that 97% will weight the pros and cons. 


Also is saves lives:


Using a panel data set of over 3,000 counties from 1977 to 1996, Professors Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Paul R. Rubin, and Joanna M. Shepherd of Emory University found that each execution, on average, results in 18 fewer murders. Using state-level panel data from 1960 to 2000, Professors Dezhbakhsh and Shepherd were able to compare the relationship between executions and murder incidents before, during, and after the U.S. Supreme Court's death penalty moratorium. They found that executions had a highly significant negative relationship with murder incidents. Additionally, the implementation of state moratoria is associated with the increased incidence of murders. [1]


So it saves lives because it prevents murders, there are more studies:

Professors H. Naci Mocan and R. Kaj Gittings of the University of Colorado at Denver have published two studies confirming the deterrent effect of capital punishment. The first study used state-level data from 1977 to 1997 to analyze the influence of executions, commutations, and removals from death row on the incidence of murder.For each additional execution, on average, about five murders were deterred. Alternatively, for each additional commutation, on average, five additional murders resulted. A removal from death row by either state courts or the U.S. Supreme Court is associated with an increase of one additional murder. Addressing criticism of their work,Professors Mocan and Gittings conducted additional analyses and found that their original findings provided robust support for the deterrent effect of capital punishment.[1]

So this study saves 5 lives are saved, others say 3, 14. My first source has all of that info.

Also for visual people:

This can be found in my second source.

Now historical deterrence:

In the 1800s, in English occupied India, there was one of the worst gangs of murdering thieves the world has ever known, the Indian hoodlum band known as the Thuggees. Through the course of their existence, dating back to the 1550s, the Thuggees were credited with murdering more than 2,000,000 people, mostly wealthy travelers. The killer secret society plagued India for more than 350 years. The Thuggees traveled in gangs, sometimes disguised as poor beggars or religious mendicants. Sometimes they wore the garb of rich merchants to get closer to unsuspecting victims. One of their principles was never to spill blood, so they always strangled their victims. Each member was required to kill at least once a year in order to maintain membership in the cult. But they killed in the name of religion. The deaths were conceived of as human sacrifices to Kali, the bloodthirsty Hindustani goddess of destruction. It came to pass that the Thuggees began to kill using pickaxes and knives. According to legend, the Thuggees believed that Kali devoured the bodies of their victims. The story goes that once a member of the society hid behind a tree in order to spy on the goddess. The angry goddess punished the Thuggees by making them bury their victims from then on.
The ruling British government worked very hard to stop the Thuggee religion and its murderous practices. Between 1829 and 1848, the British managed to suppress the Thuggees by means of mass arrests and speedy executions. Indeed, rows and rows of Thuggees were left hanging from the gallows along the roads by the dozens. This not only established a zero recidivism rate, but it also greatly discouraged new membership into the cult. The most lethal practitioner of the cult of Thuggee was Buhram. At his trial it was established that he had murdered 931 people between 1790 and 1840. All had been strangled with his waistcloth. Burham was executed in 1840. Appropriately enough, he was hanged until he strangled. In 1832, the Agent to the Governor-General of India, F. C. Smith had this to say about the Thugees and their deeds. [2]


So historically is deters too.


People who are anti-death penalty point out that the states without the death penalty have lower crime rates. But they miss a few facts, the states with the death penalty usually have a lot more people, and more urban areas, which leads to more crime. Like wisconsin and texas, texas has a higher crime rate but has 5 times the population. Also every state in the Union is different, they forget that point to. So their argument is, invalid. 

How about the bible, whats it's take on this? It is for it. 

These quotes came from my second source.

"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. for assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."-Matthew 5:17-19

So let the destroyed be destroyed.

"Judge not, that you be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye" -Matthew 7:1-5

eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

Christ Himself regarded capital punishment as a just penalty for murder when He said to one of his disciples after he tried to kill a soldier who had come to arrest Jesus: "...all who take the sword will perish by the sword."


And jesus himself. If you are christian you are obliged to be pro-death penalty.

More people are pro-death penalty then not:

61% of americans are for the death penalty, 35% opposed. 4% undecided.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1606/death-penalty.aspx

Also cost, the death penalty is more expensive, but it has all of these other benefits, so the cost benefit ratio is good, the benefit outweighs the cost.

Risk of executing an innocent:

Our new DNA testing is almost perfect. It will keep innocents from being executed in the current times. It has also freed former people on death row. But historically was it dangerous? No.

After all, far, far more innocent lives have been taken by convicted murderers than the supposedly 23 innocents mistakenly executed this century. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence that the death penalty in this country has ever executed even ONE innocent in the past century! Also consider that thousands of American citizens are murdered each year by released and paroled criminals. These are the serious flaws in life sentences that abolitionists prefer to trivialize to nonexistence. [2]


So supposedly 23 have been innocently killed, but there is no proof to back up this claim. Also even if those 23 where innocent the DP (death penalty) has saved many more innocents due to its deterrence and the studies above. So once again, a cost benefit ratio. And the ratio here is superb. The DP saves more lives than it supposedly takes away. 


Many anti DP advocates say that the DP violates the constitution, the 8th amendment mostly. But the death penalty is not cruel and unusual. In america is is not unusual, and the procedure is painless. So it is constitutional on those rules. 



In Trop v. Dulles, Chief Justice Earl Warren, no friend of the death penalty, said:

"Whatever the arguments may be against capital punishment, both on moral grounds and on grounds and in terms of accomplishing the purposes of punishment.... the death penalty has been employed throughout our history, and in a day when it is still widely accepted, it cannot be said to violate the conceptional concept of cruelty".

Indeed, the Supreme Court has constantly held that the death penalty in itself, as a sentence for a crime, is neither cruel or unusual. In Furman vs. Georgia, the court said:

"The punishment of death is not cruel, within the meaning of that word as used in the Constitution. It implies there is something more inhuman and barbarous, than the mere extinguishment of life."

More examples in my second source. 

Also life without parole is not as good as the death penalty, it actually doesn't save lives. It kills them. Prisoners on life without parole kill inmates, kill prison guards, and sometimes get out of jail even if they have the no parole option added on. Here are examples:

5/1/09 - Illinois governor commutes sentence of mom who killed kids

The new Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has commuted the sentence of Debra Lynn Gindorf, a woman some experts believe was suffering from postpartum depression when she killed her two children more than two decades ago. Gindorf, now 45, was found guilty but mentally ill for the 1985 murders of Christina, 23 months and Jason, 3 months. Gindorf was given a sentence of life without parole, but Quinn shortened the sentence to 48 years. In Illinois, she will receive a day of credit for every day she has served under "good conduct" rules and will be eligible for immediate release on parole because she has already served 24 years. The 45-year-old Gindorf was found guilty but mentally ill in the 1985 slayings of 23-month-old Christina and 3-month-old Jason. She tried to kill herself and the children but she survived the blend of alcohol and sleeping pills and woke the next morning beside her dead children. Quinn spokesman Bob Reed declined comment. The Lake County State's Attorney's office had supported clemency for Gindorf. In interviews published in local papers, Gindorf refers to the murder of her children as "the accident." [3]

more examples in my third source. 

George W. Bush, MBA, 43rd President of the United States, in an Oct. 17, 2000 Third Bush-Gore debate at Washington University, answering to the question "Do both of you believe that the death penalty actually deters crime?," stated:

"I do, that’s the only reason to be for it. I don’t think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don’t think that’s right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives."

 George E. Pataki, JD, 53rd. Governor of New York State, in an Aug. 30, 1996 press release titled "Statement on Anniversary of Death Penalty by Governor Pataki," stated:

"New Yorkers live in safer communities today because we are finally creating a climate that protects our citizens and causes criminals to fear arrest, prosecution and punishment. ...This has occurred in part because of the strong signal that the death penalty sent to violent criminals and murderers: we won't excuse criminals, we will punish them... I sponsored the death penalty laws because of my firm conviction that it would act as a significant deterrent and provide a true measure of justice to murder victims and their loved ones... I have every confidence that it will continue to deter murders, will continue to enhance public safety and will be enforced fairly and justly."

This concludes this post. Hope you enjoyed it :)

http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/the-death-penalty-deters-crime-and-saves-lives [1]

http://wesleylowe.com/cp.html#deter [2]

http://prodeathpenalty.com/LWOP.htm [3]