The New York State law.
Death Penalty and Sentencing Information">.
Imposition of the death penalty is extraordinarily rare. Since 1967, there has been one execution for every 1600 murders, or 0.06%. There have been approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions from 1967-1996 FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) & Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Approximately 5900 persons have been sentenced to death and 358 executed (from 1973-96). An average of 0.2% of those were executed every year during that time. 56 murderers were executed in 1995, a record number for the modern death penalty. This represented 1.8% of those on death row. The average time on death row for those 56 executed - 11 years, 2 months ("Capital Punishment 1995", BJS, 1996), an all time record of longevity, breaking the 1994 record of 10 years, 2 months. Death penalty opponents ("opponents") state that "Those who support the death penalty see it as a solution to violent crime." Opponents, hereby, present one of many fabrications. In reality, executions are seen as the appropriate punishment for certain criminals committing specific crimes. So says the U.S. Supreme Court and so say most death penalty supporters ("advocates"). Opponents equate execution and murder, believing that if two acts have the same ending or result, then those two acts are morally equivalent. This is a morally untenable position. Is the legal taking of property to satisfy a debt the same as auto theft? Both result in loss of property. Are kidnaping and legal incarceration the same? Both involve imprisonment against one's will. Is killing in self defense the same as capital murder? Both end in taking human life. Are rape and making love the same? Both may result in sexual intercourse. How absurd. Opponents' flawed logic and moral confusion mirror their "factual" arguments - there is, often, an absence of reality. The moral confusion of some opponents is astounding. Some equate the American death penalty with the Nazi holocaust. Opponents see no moral distinction between the slaughter of 12 million totally innocent men, women and children and the just execution of society's worst human rights violators.
Since 1967, there has been one execution for every 1600 murders, or 0.06%. There have been approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions from 1967-1996 FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) & Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
Approximately 5900 persons have been sentenced to death and 358 executed (from 1973-96). An average of 0.2% of those were executed every year during that time. 56 murderers were executed in 1995, a record number for the modern death penalty. This represented 1.8% of those on death row. The average time on death row for those 56 executed - 11 years, 2 months ("Capital Punishment 1995", BJS, 1996), an all time record of longevity, breaking the 1994 record of 10 years, 2 months.
Death penalty opponents ("opponents") state that "Those who support the death penalty see it as a solution to violent crime." Opponents, hereby, present one of many fabrications. In reality, executions are seen as the appropriate punishment for certain criminals committing specific crimes. So says the U.S. Supreme Court and so say most death penalty supporters ("advocates").
Opponents equate execution and murder, believing that if two acts have the same ending or result, then those two acts are morally equivalent. This is a morally untenable position. Is the legal taking of property to satisfy a debt the same as auto theft? Both result in loss of property. Are kidnaping and legal incarceration the same? Both involve imprisonment against one's will. Is killing in self defense the same as capital murder? Both end in taking human life. Are rape and making love the same? Both may result in sexual intercourse.
How absurd. Opponents' flawed logic and moral confusion mirror their "factual" arguments - there is, often, an absence of reality. The moral confusion of some opponents is astounding. Some equate the American death penalty with the Nazi holocaust. Opponents see no moral distinction between the slaughter of 12 million totally innocent men, women and children and the just execution of society's worst human rights violators.
The Michigan law.
Against the Death Penalty
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has collected many recent deterrence studies, including ones by Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Paul H. Rubin, Joanna M. Shepherd, H. Naci Mocan & R. Kaj Gittings and others claiming a deterrent effect to the death penalty. These studies may be found HERE. The following are academic critques of this new research: The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence In an article entitled The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence, John Donnohue and Justin Wolfers examined recent statistical studies that claimed to show a deterrent effect from the death penalty. The authors conclude that the estimates claiming that the death penalty saves numerous lives "are simply not credible." In fact, the authors state that using the same data and proper methodology could lead to the exact opposite conclusion: that is, that the death penalty actually increases the number of murders. The authors state: "We show that with the most minor tweaking of the [research] instruments, one can get estimates ranging from 429 lives saved per execution to 86 lives lost. These numbers are outside the bounds of credibility." (The Economists' Voice, April 2006). The Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate A new edition of the Stanford Law Review contains an article entitled Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate. The article examines and performs comparison tests on recent studies that have claimed a deterrent effect to the death penalty. Authors John J. Donohue of Yale Law School and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania state their goal and conclusions: "Aggregating over all of our estimates, it is entirely unclear even whether the preponderance of evidence suggests that the death penalty causes more or less murder." (58 Stanford Law Review 791 (2005)).
The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence
In an article entitled The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence, John Donnohue and Justin Wolfers examined recent statistical studies that claimed to show a deterrent effect from the death penalty. The authors conclude that the estimates claiming that the death penalty saves numerous lives "are simply not credible." In fact, the authors state that using the same data and proper methodology could lead to the exact opposite conclusion: that is, that the death penalty actually increases the number of murders. The authors state: "We show that with the most minor tweaking of the [research] instruments, one can get estimates ranging from 429 lives saved per execution to 86 lives lost. These numbers are outside the bounds of credibility." (The Economists' Voice, April 2006).
The Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate
A new edition of the Stanford Law Review contains an article entitled Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate. The article examines and performs comparison tests on recent studies that have claimed a deterrent effect to the death penalty. Authors John J. Donohue of Yale Law School and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania state their goal and conclusions: "Aggregating over all of our estimates, it is entirely unclear even whether the preponderance of evidence suggests that the death penalty causes more or less murder." (58 Stanford Law Review 791 (2005)).
But maybe death penalty proponents should consider this: innocent people are convicted for crimes they did not commit. This include crimes that in some jurisdictions carry the death penalty. There is no justice system in the world where exactly zero innocent persons are convicted. Mistakes happen. In other words, there's a rather decent change that people have been put to death for crimes they did not commit. And the people who put them to death probably isn't in a great deal of hurry to figure out whether they just have made a fuck-up of monumental proportions, so the true number of false convictions is probably not forthcoming anytime soon.
Even if I wasn't morally opposed to the idea of putting people to death, that alone would still give me pause. "The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde
Well theres a rather forced argument. I'd argue that of the set of executions, there is a subset where the person has been incorrectly found guilty. In those cases then execution and murder are equivalent. I'd argue that unless you could prove 100% that every death penalty case the correct person had been executed for the crime, then execution was immoral. One murder by the state is one murder too many.
An ineteresting book that discusses the second part iks the autobiography of Albert Pierrepoint, the UK's last official hangman. at the end of the book he states that of all the people he hanged, he can't think of a single case where the death penalty had even the slightest deterrant effect Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
If the death penalty has no deterrent effect then it is merely a barbaric ritual of revenge. Only if it has deterrent effect is it useful, in the sense of reducing the sum of violence in the society.
I have never seen any data that seemed to me conclusive, that showed a measurable deterrent effect.
Reducing neurotoxin levels in people's houses, air, and diets (lead abatement) probably has done more to reduce violent crime than any number of hangings. If the death penalty were highly deterrent then countries which practise it should have far lower violent crime rates per mio pop than the rest of the world. Last time I checked that did not seem to be the case. The difference between theory and practise in practise ...
Number of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002: Finland: 52 US: 702 Russia: 664
http://www.boosman.com/blog/2003/01/the_finnish_prison_system.html
These figures happen to be closely tracked by the inequality of income. You can't be me, I'm taken
I wonder what the stats are on repeat-offenders, but surely it must be lower in Finland (for one thing, less people per capita who could potentially be a repeat-offender). I've had arguments with people who seem to think Finnish prisoners have it too good (which usually ends with me invoking Goodwin's law in one form or another). As I said above, what's the point of having prisons to begin with it if you come out in worse shape than when you went in? "The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde
Other than that the Finns have been quietly suffering their neighbours. You can't be me, I'm taken
Quite a few executed whites too.
Sure, of course, but the aftermath saw only executed reds, since they were the losers.
Some exact numbers from the War Victims Project:
Killed in action: 5324 Reds, 3279 Whites Executed or murdered: 7207 Reds, 1321 Whites Died in prison camps: 11785 Reds, 6 Whites Died after being released: 597 Reds, 0 Whites Missing: 1818 Reds, 42 Whites Other causes: 695 Reds, 173 Whites Total: 27426 Reds, 4821 Whites, 2030 Others
(Sorry for the digression) You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes. --More--
Why does one group or the other insist that their answer is the only correct, moral one?
But hey, God told us to do it.
It doesn't matter if it is moral to kill the guilty - not a position I accept - unless you can guarantee that you never, ever, err in executions.
THE RISK OF EXECUTING THE INNOCENT I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
In this case it would be the one calling for the retention and use of the death penalty.
Can we ever be sure, regardless of the sentence?
Is trial by jury a bad idea or is it only when the death penalty is an option?
