Does the death sentence act as a deterrent in the states of USA where it is still used as a punishment?

Question

Are the correct criminals sentenced to death or are there still scapegoats (with the forensic evidence we can gather today.) Would it be a good idea to bring it back in the UK if we are under no doubt whatsoever that the criminal is guity of a terrible crime ie Murder.Would this save taxpayers money and relieve our prisons from being overcrowded?

Answer 1

no ... i think people that commit crimes assume they will never get caught so never consider the consequences ... if anything the death penalty is a way for the victims and families of victims to have satisfaction of justice ...

Answer 2

The Supreme Court has determined that it is NOT cruel or unusual.. Blacks commit a proportionately FAR greater number of crimes than white. ALL accused of murder are entitled to a Public Defender at NO cost. This is egalitarian. COST is not the issue. The issue is justice. Are you saying that the lives of those murdered should be bartered for at a bargain price? It is EQUALLY TRUE the guilty people are released, and far more often due to legal technicalities and prosecutorial ineptitude. Capital punishment is NOT about deterrence. It is society's method of holding individuals acccountable for their crimes and punishing them. Your opinion that capital punishment must be"rejected in all instances" is just that, an opinion. BTW: Why not ask this question in Red China or Russia, where the trials are swift, and the convicts get a bullet in the back of the head? Your FLAG is showing. Edit: I hear the usual libbie emotional hand wringing, rationalization, and opinion. Let someone YOU know be raped and murdered by the likes of someone such as Lovelle Mixon and you will sing a different tune. Funny how you so cavalierly dismissed the mass murder of MILLIONS by your commie leaders. You forgot that murdering thug Castro. And isn't it just like a libbie to want to DO THE CRIME BUT NOT WANT TO DO THE TIME. NOT executing murderers is a left handed way of condoning murder. If that is the commie way, KEEP IT.

Answer 3

It doesn't seem to act as a deterrent, given the murder rate in some cities.
I suspect that there may be some racial influence on death sentences passed, paricularly in Southern states.
We cannot have a death penalty here in the UK, as we were required to abolish it in 1998 under European law. That's when we stopped maintaining a working gallows.
Executions and all that go with them are expensive, and the small number of executions that would actually happen would not save a significant amount of money anyway. Far better that we make prisoners earn their own keep in a more productive way, and benefit themselves by learning skills that will keep them out of trouble.
Imagine a prison building programme that involved only inmate labour. Imagine how many inmates would start as unemployable misfits and end up highly employable skilled tradesmen.

Answer 4

If you want more info, especially about the pros and cons of it in the USA, email me but here are a few of the proof I used in a paper:

In the book of Exodus, God established that justice must be served by punishing the criminal with the crime s/he committed.

while in prison, they [the criminal] must think about what they did for the rest of their lives.

for convicted murderers who are already serving life without parole sentences, the death penalty is a critical deterrent to the murder of prison guards, nurses, and other inmates

punishments should be related in severity to the crimes committed, so capital crimes deserve capital punishment

If a person who has murdered someone has a chance of getting free, there is always the chance the person will attempt to kill again, if not outside prison walls, within the prison itself

there is no reason a murderer should live in prison, being paid for by the society s/he hurt

This is most likely a better life than what the prisoner had while s/he was free. To make others pay for a murderer to live in comfort is illogical for society to accept

Answer 5

The death Sentence does not seem to deter any criminal who is intent on taking a life and living with the consequences until they are caught.After a long hard climb within the judicial system which happens to be a farce...billions of dollars are wasted on known felons who repeat the same crime over and over. the taxpayer must be sick of constant hikes on their earnings with more taxes to keep the lawyers and judges in the lifestyle they have become accustom to.
The death sentence is cruel, because they keep convicts on Death Row for years instead of carrying out the sentence 48hrs after the Guilty verdict.

Answer 6

Here in Texas, the death penalty is carried out on a very regular basis, so it's no deterrent in this state.The majority of these killers are very poor or mentally challenged. Violence is a way of life for them.Did they have fair trials? Maybe not, since they had court appointed attorneys... one of which even noddded off during a trial. As long as these gun toting and knife wielding Texans are allowed to pack weapons, the long line for the needle will continue to increase because the death penalty is alive and doing quite well here.

Answer 7

I don't care if it acts as a deterrent or not. The animals sentenced to death have committed horrendous crimes and need not live among us, even in prison. Too many of these barbarians escape from prison or are release by gutless judges or parole boards only to prey on innocent people again. And swift punishment of these sub-humans should be the law, not year after year of endless appeals.

Answer 8

Well of course it would but ,there are few cases these days where everything is case tight.& the do gooders will want to have a say,the re born again criminal will want to prove his neck is worth saving Oh! the list is endless,Death Penalty will not return in your lifetime or mine.Those who have been done away with in the U.S.A one thing is sure, if they were guilty they will not be troubling anyone again,hopefully some people can sleep a little easier.

Answer 9

DNA evidence showed a third of the people sentenced to death in Illinois were factually innocent of the charges they'd been convicted of, so the governor commuted all the death sentences in that state. I think the death penalty Encourages violent crime by setting the example that killing people is an acceptable method of punishment. If you don't believe in killing people the best, the only, way to show it is by NOT killing people--especially if a third of the people you are going to kill didn't even do anything to deserve it.

Answer 10

No study - and there have been many - has ever shown the death penalty to be a deterrant in a modern society

{edit} ecgsk - either show where you got your statistics from, or just admit you are talking out of your a55

polaris - there have been far too many wrongful convictions that have come to light, in my lifetime to be so blase about the death penalty..... and that is only the ones that have come to public attention

Answer 11

Lets put it this way . If the death penalty was used like it should be used, it might be a deterrant.

Bring back the electric chair and execute after the convict has failed ONLY ONE APPEAL. Appeal and Execution should be within one year.

Make the following an executeable offense:

a) Murder ( pre-med )
b) Rape
c) Child molestation ( 1st offense )


Try that and trust me watch death panalty offenses drop like a rock.